"Yes, yes, your pride." Asmi waved a hand like that was useless information. "You could just lie, hell, you could just steal from the church. I've done my fair share of theft from that place." He rolled his eyes, looking down to Daron before smiling softly and patting his head again. "Plus, look at this one's face, it's adorable. Perfect for scamming."
Doran smiled, flashing soft dimples up at Asmi. He was 13, so while he wasn't a child, he still wasn't much of a teenager.
Andros grimaced. "That isn't what I mean. If we had the churches help, we could force the Dukes into compliance. It isn't something that can be bought." He replied.
Alejandro sat close to Asmi, feeling somber and sullen. They were wasting time here, he knew it, and he didn’t like it one bit. He was getting tired of being stuck places, first in comfort which was fine for a while until it wasn’t, and then getting stuck with the prince, and then… well, needless to say they were very stuck. “We should keep moving after this. Find a place to stay, where nobody can find us.” he said in his deep, heavy voice.
Asmi's eyes seemed to roll harder. "Everything can be bought darling, you just have to find the right currency. Like torturing the heads of the Church. Or…" Asmi held his hands over Daron's ears. "Or I could hunt down the heads and… Make them see it our way." They were joking, they knew that it wouldn't actually work, but they wanted to make Andros laugh. All of them laugh.
Andros let out a quiet laugh. "No, Asmi. As tempting as that sounds, I can't let you do that. And the church…we could not afford what they would want from us. From Doran. There are prices that we cannot and will not pay." He looked at Alejandro. "We have been on the move for a year now, Alejandro. Where do you suggest we go?" They had stayed at tavern after tavern, inn after inn, and slept under the stars on warm nights.
“It’s never enough! They’ll find us again and again if we stop for even a second, and there’s been too many close calls now to call it quits. If we left the homeland, went out to the country…” Jandro began, trailing off. He turned to look towards the area, wondering if anyone was watching them. He couldn’t risk it, couldn’t take the chance that anyone could find them. He had a prince to protect, after all.
((Oof sorry…let me get a response up))
Caoimhe just rolled their eyes, taking a sip of their ale, they weren't exactly for getting into one of the churches spending the night there, personally, they hated it there, but the inns seemed to full that day when they had entered the town. "Perhaps, we could just find a nice tree and bunk up there?" They said with a shrug, it had been something that they rather enjoyed doing, just enjoying the stars and nature itself, it was just so peaceful compared to the rush all of their lives had become. "If you would like my suggestion." They added, as they took another swig of their ale.
"We aren't leaving." Andros's voice was firm. "We are not taking Doran out of his own country. I will not let the Dukes run us from our own country." He looked at Alejandro. "Being found is a risk we take. If you don't like that, I will not force you to stay." He shook his head faintly, closing his eyes for just a moment. He looked over at Cain, and raised an eyebrow. "While that would work for you, perhaps, we cannot simply stay in trees. I'm not sure how well that would work. Our current tactic has served us just fine."
"And this is why we're still in danger." Caoimhe said quietly, looking over at the other man. "This may be our country, but it is not safe here anymore. We can continue to hide from them over and over, but eventually, we will be found, and even though I may not exactly care for the idea of staying, I will still stay and protect all of you." They said witha shrug, "And the trees would work just fine, it's the perfect bed in my opinion, and just so comfortable, the higher up you can get, the closer you are to the sky, and then you can view the stars better, oh, it's just so nice." They said with a big grin, taking another sip as they finished off their ale.
He took a sip of his ale. "If we leave, we lose what support we do have. I will not make Doran look like a coward." He said, looking over and shaking his head. "We stay. Again, I will not force you to remain if you don't want to."
"And what if I wanted to leave?" Doran asked, looking up at Andros.
Andros blinked down at him. "Well— do you want to?" He asked slowly, setting down his ale.
"No, not really. I'm just curious." Doran said, tipping his head.
"Well…of course I would do whatever you needed me to, but I do believe it is best to remain within your own country. Outside of it, you would be even more vulnerable." Andros said.
"He wouldn't. My adoptive family held connections out there, in the far reaches of the land where nobody would think to look. For all their… fruffery, they were well-connected, and that may be just what we need to educate Doran, peace and quiet." Alejandro said, standing up to call for some more to drink.
Andros looked at Alejandro, studying him for a moment, then shrugged a little bit. "Perhaps. But I do not want Doran to leave this country. The Dukes will take it as an opportunity to make him look like a coward, and they are already trying to push his claim from the throne."
"They can't take his throne though, can they? I thought that the king put that in his will, that Doran, when he came of age would take the throne. Sure they can make him look like a coward, but well, what does that mean, the throne will not belong to them in the end." They said, placing their mug of ale down onto the table.
Andros sighed, rubbing his forehead with a hand. "Look– you know what they did to the king." He said slowly. "You really think they're going to let Doran just…sit on that throne? No. I may not…I may not be a noble and I may not have had much formal schooling, but they're going to find any way they can to shove him off the throne or kill him. That's why we're on the run."
“I understand, I just worry. Doran, what do you want for yourself? You’re awfully quiet.” Alejandro said, accepting a refill on his already drained drink and tipping quite handsomely for someone on the run. He had enough money, he could afford to make one poor waitress’s life better for a few minutes.
Doran shrugged his shoulders a little bit. "I don't know. I trust you guys. I think…I think it would be best to stay in the country? But I don't know." The young prince looked hesitant and unsure, glancing between the four of them cautiously.
Andros nodded a little, taking another sip of his drink and letting out a slow breath.
"I will say this, however. If anything happens to the prince on your watch, I'll kill you myselves. And if, however unlikely, something happens to him on my watch, I'll sooner end my own life than live with the consequences." he said solemnly.
Asmi had been silent for a while, fingers tapping on their mug of booze. "Perhaps… We start by kidnapping someone important and make them induct us into their business. We don't have to kidnap exactly, just do something to get that person to trust us. I doubt the Dukes will look into their own ranks, they may be paranoid, but they are also proud." They voiced finally.
Andros looked between the two, pressing his fingers to his forehead. "I assure you that nothing will happen to Doran under my watch." He said. "And as for kidnapping…I don't know. I don't think it's a good idea. I mean…you've got a good…hmm." he considered Asmi's words for a long, silent minute, and then said, "It's an interesting idea, but I do not think it would work the way you think it would."
(bump)
(so I've been thinking about this RP lately, and I know that Reed is the only one still active, but. Reed, would you wanna reboot this? Maybe just as like, an OxO, though, and we each have two characters? If not that's fine, but it might be fun)
(Sure my dude!! I can't promise how active my responses will be for just a O/O, maybe f we get at least one more person and put it into pms? I can see if anyone I know wants to join)
(alright! It's just that I'm not super active, I'm usually only active for an hour or so in the evenings and then another hour or two on Wednesday mornings, so I'm not gonna be replying a ton during the day usually)
(I'm usually the exact oppisite lol, I just rarely have the energy to respond to rps durng the day )
(haha oof. The only reason I'm so inactive is because my parents are ✨ assholes ✨ so)
(Ah, I just try and put other things above notebook)
(dhdh fair. I might know of somebody who might be interested in doing this with us? They expressed interest when I first created it but it was already full at the time)
(oOOo who? I know that Swim and Max are really good rpers)
(actually I was thinking CallyCat? But Swim and Max could be options too if Cally doesn't want to)
(Also would you be keeping the role of the Saint or would you want a different role?)
(Cally can't, so we could ask Swim first? Then Max if Swim can't/doesn't want to?)