Old Home Week [Attn: Jaren Marle Asha'man]

Hama Valon, the city around the Grey Tower.
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Welcome to Hama Valon! The aptly named 'mountain guard' is the city that has grown up at the gates of the Grey Tower at the western edge of the Two Rivers. Like all cities, there are quiet quarters with pleasant inns, such as Elman's Creek, which used to be the nearest village when the Tower was young, but was absorbed as the new city grew; its Band of Brothers Inn is still a favorite relaxation spot for many of the Tower's denizens. And again, like all cities the world over, there are less pleasant places--narrow, nameless streets that house hells and other houses of ill repute. Most of the city falls somewhere in between, with hawkers crying their wares in the streets, respectable shopkeepers ready to serve you, and petty cutpurses happy to follow you.

Novices, Soldiers, and drin'far'ji must be accompanied by a chaperon when outside Tower walls or they risk being picked up as runaways and duly punished.
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Bella
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Location: New England

Old Home Week [Attn: Jaren Marle Asha'man]

Post by Bella » February 27th, 2018, 4:10 am

The note was simple. It was delivered by an Accepted to Jaren that afternoon, and it read:

It's been too long, my friend. I am spiriting you away to share the evening meal with me in the city. Be ready by dinnertime and I shall come to your quarters.

Your friend,
Andraste


And thus it was that a Red Aes Sedai showed up at the door of a Yellow Asha'man just a little before dinnertime... Andra was attired in a simple but casually elegant red dress, as usual, but without her shawl. She rarely wore it, really. She knew that she was being a little...well, pushy with this "invitation that can't be refused," but she wanted to see Jaren before she had to leave the Tower again.

Which was frequent, of late.

She reached Jaren's door and knocked.

Elan
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Re: Old Home Week [Attn: Jaren Marle Asha'man]

Post by Elan » March 5th, 2018, 12:15 am

Jaren
“Looks like I have a date tonight,” Jaren commented idly when the note arrived.

Jaryd, focused on something that looked like an old manuscript with notes scrawled all over its margins in tiny but surprisingly legible hand, looked up from his project, eyebrows raised slightly. “Oh? With whom?” An amused glint in his eyes, he added, “Should I be jealous?”

Jaren chuckled. “Andraste,” he said, folding the note and slipping it into his pocket. “Evidently I have no say in the matter; she’s picking me up at dinnertime.” But he had no specific plans for the evening, so he didn’t mind. Andra was right, anyway; it had been a long time since they’d last had a chance to catch up. “You’ve been keeping her busy, I take it.”

The Red snorted softly. “The great thing about the Red Ajah is that its members are mostly capable of independent thought and keeping themselves busy without my constant supervision.”

“I might complain more if they weren’t,” Jaren said lightly. He wandered over to give his lover a quick kiss… which became a not-so-quick kiss, which he had to break off before it turned into something more than that, because they both had things to do. “Sorry,” he said, with a grin that was not apologetic in the least, “I didn’t mean to distract you.”

“Sure you didn’t.” Jaryd’s words, the warm note of laughter in his voice, followed him as he went to puzzle over what to wear for the dinner. His wardrobe had recently gone through an overhaul, now including more colour and variety than it had since before he’d ever heard of the Grey Tower, and he had to admit that wearing something other than black was nice every now and then, but having to decide what to wear could be tedious.

When the appointed time came, he was dressed in grey trousers and a blue coat with elegant scrollwork embroidery in silver-thread. “How do I look?” he asked Jaryd, all wide-eyed innocence, though he couldn’t help but grin at the appreciative look on his lover’s face. “Not too bad, then, I guess.” A knock on the door drew his attention, though he was suddenly reluctant to go anywhere when Jaryd was looking at him like that. He smiled a little sheepishly. “I’ll see you later?”

Then he went to open the door. “Andra,” he greeted the Aes Sedai with a bright smile. “Good to see you. Shall we?”

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Bella
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Re: Old Home Week [Attn: Jaren Marle Asha'man]

Post by Bella » March 10th, 2018, 12:15 am

When the door opened and Jaren stood behind it, Andraste offered an open, genuine smile in return. "It is good to see you as well," she said easily. "You're looking very handsome tonight. I'm pleased that my abrupt invitation did not scare you away." Her dark eyes sparkled with humor as she stood aside and gestured. "Let's."

Once he had stepped out and shut the door behind him, she fell in step as they made their way out of the Ajah hall and on toward the path out of the Tower.

"So much has changed," she commented idly as they walked. "And yet it seems much remains the same." She laughed softly. "At least we no longer are required to wash the entirety of the Novice Hall's wardrobe." Had it really been so many years since the two had met and become friends over steaming piles of laundry?

"Tell me, how have you been?" she finally asked, glancing sidelong at him.

Elan
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Re: Old Home Week [Attn: Jaren Marle Asha'man]

Post by Elan » March 11th, 2018, 10:03 pm

Jaren
He gave a soft chuckle at the mention of laundry. It wasn’t exactly something he thought of often, anymore, but first impressions were notoriously difficult to shake. Of course, Andraste was far from the only person he’d been stuck in the laundry room with, but he couldn’t think of others who had become friends like her. To be fair, though, there had been other factors involved than laundry; he and Andraste both had come to the Tower older than most Novices or Soldiers, and they’d perhaps had a bit more in common.

“…Besides getting kidnapped by the Shadow and the White Tower?” he said, in response to her question. Then he shook his head with a smile. “I’m good. Really, life is… good.” That was the truth, yet phrasing it like that didn’t seem to do justice to how lucky he felt to be where he was in life right now. “At a risk of sounding horribly sappy,” though his smile said he wasn’t sorry in the least, “I’m happier than I’ve ever been or ever thought I could be.” Sometimes — not very often, because it simply wasn’t in his nature, but sometimes — he wondered when the next disaster would strike, but it wasn’t a thought that kept him up at night or anything like that. Sure, he worried whenever Jaryd left the Tower on Red Ajah business, but it was something he’d always known he’d have to live with, and that was that.

“What about you?” he asked. “Busy saving the world, as you do?” He flashed a slightly wry grin. “I’d say I hope you remember to take a day off every now and then, but my experience is that you Reds are notoriously bad at that.” Jaryd, Mael… Andra; there was a pattern there.

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Bella
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Location: New England

Re: Old Home Week [Attn: Jaren Marle Asha'man]

Post by Bella » March 14th, 2018, 12:35 am

It pleased her to hear that her friend was so happy. She recalled the days when she had felt like that, and she wished him the best. True, hers had ended...badly, but she knew that wasn't the rule of things. Tragedies happened, but not always and not to everyone. Jaren had often seemed a little lost to her, so to hear him contented pleased her greatly.

Andra laughed easily at his own question. "I don't know about saving the world..." she said, mirth glimmering in her dark eyes, "but I do try to keep busy. I do feel like I spend more time out of the Tower than in it these days, but I don't suppose that's a bad thing. It gives me purpose, which is something I lacked for some time after coming here.

"But I think being gone so much makes me appreciate it here more. Though I have to work on keeping in touch with my friends better." She nudged his lightly with her shoulder, smiling.

Elan
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Re: Old Home Week [Attn: Jaren Marle Asha'man]

Post by Elan » March 16th, 2018, 11:29 pm

Jaren
“Yeah, we could all be better at that, I suppose,” Jaren replied with a quick grin. “If not for Jaryd and my Warder, I might sleep in the Infirmary half the time… Though I suppose Maever might protest.”

Andra had always said she wanted to travel again once she was Aes Sedai, and now she was doing exactly that; Jaren hoped she was happy, though travelling on Red Ajah business had to be quite different from her life as a travelling merchant. More dangerous, for one. Though she hadn’t been of the Red Ajah when she’d encountered her first Darkfriend, so maybe that was not so new.

As for travelling, Jaren had said the same himself, but he rarely ventured far from Hama Valon though he was technically free to come and go as he pleased, too. In an unexpected turn of events, it seemed that having a home — not just the place but the people that made it so — actually made him want to stay in one place.

“The Red Ajah life is everything you expected, then, I take it?” he asked then. Back in the days of the endless mountains of laundry, they had both thought they’d want to join one of the more action-based Ajahs, and while Jaren had taken a sharp turn towards a less flashy calling somewhere along the line, Andra had gone on to join perhaps the most demanding Ajah there was.

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Location: New England

Re: Old Home Week [Attn: Jaren Marle Asha'man]

Post by Bella » March 19th, 2018, 3:45 pm

Andra laughed lightly at that. Just then, they emerged from the hallways out into the brightly lit evening. The sun had begun to set, as they were toward the dinner hour, but it had not descended very far yet. There was little darkness and only a hint of sunset colors descending over them. It was one of her favorite times of the day.

"Yes and no," she said. "There is a lot of traveling, and it is very active. I always wanted to get back to doing both, since staying in one place all the time doesn't suit me, even when the place is as much home as this place has become...but then there's a lot of days, I find myself buried in paper and research and investigation. That was unexpected, but fascinating in its own way."

After a moment, she went on, "And you? How do you find the Yellow to treat you?" She recalled their long-ago discussion and that his path had diverged a little more than hers had, but so long as he was fulfilled, then it was all good by her.

Elan
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Re: Old Home Week [Attn: Jaren Marle Asha'man]

Post by Elan » April 9th, 2018, 3:58 pm

Jaren
Jaren chuckled at the mention of paperwork; that part of the Red Ajah business he’d grown very familiar with, while living with Jaryd. Some days he’d come back to their apartment to find Jaryd sitting cross-legged in the middle of the floor with practically the entire room around him covered in maps and other documents. He tried to imagine Andraste doing that, and failed; he couldn’t imagine her in the midst of such barely-controlled chaos of research. She seemed more the type to have everything in neat stacks and folders, working at her desk, no more than one or maybe two old books or scriptures open at any given time.

Then again, maybe he was wrong. He’d never seen her work space, after all.

At her question, he smiled again. “The Yellow is exactly as I expected,” he replied. “Some days, nothing seems to happen; some other days, it seems like the entire Warder Yards have suddenly forgotten how to hold a sword without stabbing themselves. Mostly it’s routine, but always rewarding.” The smile faltered a little, and his expression turned thoughtful. “The hardest part is accepting that you can’t save everyone.” With the Power, you very nearly could… but even then there were some things that the Power couldn’t touch. Like the Ji’val Paks.

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Location: New England

Re: Old Home Week [Attn: Jaren Marle Asha'man]

Post by Bella » April 14th, 2018, 8:55 pm

Andraste smiled sadly. "Yes, I can definitely see how that would be difficult." She patted his arm briefly. Such thoughts drew her mind back to Belenus and Chandra, but at least the pain that brought was not nearly so sharp and agonizing as it had once been. She knew that it would never not hurt...but it was a little less painful over time.

"I know I would struggle with that as well, but at least with your abilities, you have a much better chance of saving people than you would otherwise," she said kindly. "You are in a position to do a lot of good, and I know that you do, even if you can't have the powers of the Light and Creator themselves."

Elan
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Posts: 450
Joined: December 6th, 2016, 10:29 am
PC: Jaren Marle, Asha'man
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Location: Finland
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Re: Old Home Week [Attn: Jaren Marle Asha'man]

Post by Elan » May 29th, 2018, 6:52 pm

Jaren
Andraste was right, of course, and most of the time Jaren was happy with doing what he could. Maybe it was just that Paks’ present plight — seeing her in the infirmary with nothing but a death wish in her eyes — hit a little close to home. Literally. Jaryd had gone through that, years before Jaren had ever set foot in the Tower, and it was not something he talked about a lot but Jaren knew that even after all this time, the wound was never completely healed.

“I know,” he said at length, when the silence had dragged on for an awkwardly long moment. He glanced at Andra with a smile. “I didn’t mean to drag the mood down. Sorry about that.”

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