NationStates Jolt Archive

[ooc: Restarting story following discussions with The Atheists Reality about what we want to do with this thread.

The lodgings were nothing special, in fact they were lucky to be given any stars at all, and probably wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for the fact that the building had running water. Not that the party who had chosen this location to rest their head for the night were really that concerned, because they had chosen it for character, location and the fact that it was the only place with available rooms nearest the station, and the group had been so tired that they really did not notice anything other than the fact that the rooms they had acquired had beds.

Blinking open his eyes, Jed Harper stretched his arms above his head and gave out a large yawn, not worrying if his noise woke up anyone else. He looked up at the ceiling, remaining lying down for a while, letting his mind and body wake up fully. He wasted some time looking at the marks, which appeared to be signs of leaking from the room above, and like people do with clouds, he tried to discern shapes of other objects in them. He let out another yawn and a groan as he brought himself up into a sitting position.

Placing his feet on the floor, he sat on the edge of the bed, his body not quite awake enough to make the finally shove to get him onto his feet. He placed his hand on his head and sighed happily as he realised he did not have a hangover, then realised this was due to the fact that he had not drunk everything the night before. Shaking his head, hoping to speed up the waking process, Jed finally made it onto his feet, but not without a groan.

Taking another stretch, he yawned again before making his way over to the bathroom; undressing and quickly stepping into the shower that decided pumping water out of only half of the shower head was enough for a shower. And not being in the mood to fight with it, Jed made the best of what he had, finally emerging soap free ten minutes later than he would have if the shower was working to full capacity.

Brushing his fingers through his wet, brown hair as he walk, Jed walked back to the bed, locating his luggage on the floor where he had dumped it the night before. He rummaged through finding some fresh clothing and quickly dressed. His stomach gave out a low rumble indicating what the next time on his bed would be. Finishing his dressing, he walked over to the other bed and kicked it, in a bid to waken the occupant.

“Come on, Sleepyhead, time to get up.” Jed looked at his watch and groaned. “And you have thirty minutes before breakfast is over, so you’d better be quick.” He walked back over to his bed, and once more perched on the edge of the bed. Looking over his shoulder, he show no movement from his friend, so he picked up his pillow and tossed towards the mound which indicated where his companion was lying.

* * * * *

Holly Byrnes had been up for what felt like forever. She had already made her way down to breakfast, where she had expected to find at least one of her friends, but when she got there, she could find no familiar faces at all. Shaking her head, and finding an empty table she helped herself to breakfast, settling for a couple of slices of toast and a cup of slightly stewed tea, not how she would normally drink it, but that was all they had on offer.

As she consumed her food and took the odd sip of her tea, which caused her to grimace every time it touched her tongue, she scanned her eyes over the book she had brought with her from home, detailing the sights and locations to visit in Erebus. She had been there before with her family, but this was the first time she had ventured out into the wilds of Tartarus on her own, and she wanted to make the most of the time they had.

She flicked a strand of titian hair behind her ear, which was in the habit of fallen into her view as she lowered her head to read the book. Her hair tended to be the bane of her life, if it was not driving her mad by doing everything she wanted it not to do, then she was having to defend it’s colour from her younger brother, who liked to tease her endlessly about it. That particular topic had been the cause of more fights than she could recall.

At the sound of approaching feet, Holly raised her gaze from the book, only for her blue eyes to find themselves staring at a pair of elderly guests, who gave her a friendly smile before passing on by to their table. She let out a sigh, and flicked her attention to the clock, before letting out another sigh, as she returned to reading her book, while waiting for her friends to grace her with their company.

"Urg. Alright alright, I'll get up. No need for excessive violence." He giggles to himself, producing a rather loud growl. "I'll be down there in a tic. Just have to make sure I've got everything here for my breakfast." He reaches down into his pocket, in his decidely overly large pants, pants, which were odd for one of his kind to even be wearing. But visiting and living in countries such as these necessitated little inconvieniences like this. He retrieves a small cube of meat and nibbles on it, slowly making his way out of bed and downstairs to a proper meal, and actual social interaction. "Gooood morning all. And how would you be today? Up for another exciting adventure, eh?"

Jed shook his head, and followed his roommate down to the restaurant, where one of their party was already waiting for them. He smiled in greeting, standing slightly behind his friend. He gave him a little shove and pushed passed, heading off to grab a plateful of food from the selection on offer. Staring at the food, he took a plate and began walking along, picking up the odd tempting looking offering, and a few that did not look that good. But he was hungry, so as long as it was edible he was happy.

Looking up as the two arrived, Holly put down her book and gave both a smile. “Good morning.” She spoke cheerfully, happy to finally have some company. “I’ve been looking for some places we can visit, once you’ve all finished up here, of course.” She turned slightly and indicated the food. “You’d best hurry before Jed eats everything.” Laughing little, she watched as he picked his food, before looking back at her other friend. “You might actually be too late by the look of things.”

"Never!" Tucking into the food as fast as he can, he races Jed to the finish like some perverted squirrel. "Ahhh. And where were you considering taking us? Some extravagant tartaran cinema? Or perhaps...some hiking!" Leaning back, he giggles slightly. It was still so overwhelming to be in such a country with such a differing culture and people, but he was determined to enjoy himself, no matter his culture shock.

Holly watched with horrified fascination as her two friends returned to the table with plates piled high with food and devoured it all within a few minutes. She cringed visibly when Jed let out a loud belch and rubbed his stomach, a satisfied look on his face. She sighed loudly, as she wondered what she had let herself into accompanying these two into the streets of the city. Being friends with them at university had been one thing, but in the big wide world…she sighed again.

“I thought we would start off doing the usual tourist things, museum, gallery…” She looked down at her book, as she reminded herself at other items she had made a note of for their first day of sightseeing. “Then I thought we could stop for lunch,” she watched as the other two suddenly looked interested. “Before we look around the ruins and other historic stuff, although I don’t think we are going to have time to do it all in one day.”

Jed frowned. “And when do we start having fun?”

Holly looked up, her eyes meeting his in a ferocious stare. “It is fun…and educational.” She turned her attention to her other companion. “What do you think of the itinerary?” The look she gave him showed that she was hoping for him to agree to it.


[ooc: Mov, any chance you can give your character a name in your next post, please?]

Kevin sighed. "Educational...bah! Though I suppose I have no choice in the matter. Women!...kidding, don't hurt me. Now Jed, you up for a day of 'educational' sightseeing?...Didn't think so. I hereby resign myself to your control for today, oh fearsome dragon lady." Kev giggles a bit. "Though I bet I can still out eat Jed. In fact, I dare ya, heh." Kev sinks back into the seat for a bit(it sagging a little under his weight, though not too much.) and sighs yet again.

Holly looked at Kevin and then at Jed, her eyes revealing her annoyance. “Okay, so you don’t want to do the sightseeing things. But I thought that was the reason we came, to see all parts of Tartarus.” She sat bolt upright, stubbornness being one of her personality traits. “I’ll do the museums and things, and I’ll meet you in some café somewhere for lunch.” She gathered her things together, and rose from her seat.

“Hey, wait!” Jed called, his attention grabbed momentarily from his plate of food. “We want to do all that stuff too, don’t we, Furball?” He looked at his friend, wanting nothing more that calm to return to the group. They had only arrived the previous night, and he did not want a fight on his hands this early of the day. He lowered his voice as he addressed only Kevin. “Breakfast not even over and you’ve upset her already.” He shook his head and refocused on his plate.

"Ack! Okay, okay. We'll go with you. I just prefer things like hiking to a musuem crawl. No offense intended." He then proceeds to gather his things, resigning himself to having to wait a little while before they got to the more interesting part of the tour. "And you too, Jed, ya hairless monkey thing. Come on, we don't want to disappoint her any further." Standing up out of his seat, he moves into step with Holly, hoping to not be /too/ out of place, despite his size. Also nibbling on the bit of leftovers he had managed to save from Jed's hunger and the waiters cleanup.

Holly grinned to herself as she heard the others arguing between themselves and gathering together their belongings. She knew they were not into all the museum stuff, but if they were there, they might as well make some effort to see a little of the capital before they moved on to more exciting things. It made her parents happy if she returned with postcards and souvenir shops, even if they did only fill a small portion of her holiday.

“You know, Kevin, there is nothing wrong with getting a little culture.” She looked up at him as he drew alongside her. “Life isn’t all about fun and excitement, sometimes you have to have quiet periods of learning.”

Jed pounced Kevin and grabbed a chunk of his food, before he could finish it all. “Any way, Furball, your parents will be pleased to know that you have doubled your intelligence level. They will be thanking Holly, probably asking for her to be knighted or something.” He joked as they left the hotel and looked about them, wondering where they had to go, but leaving the directions to their female companion.

“I really don’t mind going on my own.” Holly sighed, wondering whether she would be better off not trying to keep her friends in line. “You too can go off and play yobs.”

Jed turned and looked at her. “Now, now…Furball and I can behave.” He looked at Kevin. “You tell her we can behave, she’ll listen to you.” He gave her a wink and laughed, as she shook her head and walked off in their desired direction.