<div class="floatleft">(https://i.imgur.com/IVSd8DU.jpg?1)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Yagnar the Warrior (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=325526.msg15642022#msg15642022) (wearing a white shirt under suspenders)<br/><strong>Location:</strong>The Barn<br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>Myrina; feel free to jump in!<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Yagnar bobbled his head in irritation, waiting for Myrina to finish her taunts. Jealousy was an unattractive trait and the half-man<em>always</em>manicured his appearance to be the most appealing eye-candy he could muster. Being beautiful made life easier and he was very intentional when it came to the cut of his clothing or style of his hair. Unlike others, he had to work to highlight what few visual merits he had and all of that work could be immediately undone by a wink of the green-eyed monster Yagnar fought to keep at bay. One could be hard-pressed to find something less attractive than resentful petulance in a full grown man.<br/><br/>He gave a false smile of politeness as Anna excused herself, raising his mug as a silent goodbye. Sometimes, silence was the best option and like Myrina, he simply watched Anna's ass as she left. Was Myrina teasing him? Had she really said anything to Talia? He was weighing how wise it would be to pursue the conversation, but given the barbs on the barbarian's tongue, Yagnar thought better of it. He desperately needed to change the conversation and save face, but it was too late.<br/><br/>"You might be setting your sights a little high, fella. I doubt you even have what it takes to handle ten minutes with me alone. Let alone me and someone else…" Myrina paused to pat his chest, "...generally it takes more than what a retiree has on hand to satisfy me."<br/><br/>The pause was microscopic - in less than a blink of an eye, Yagnar's lips had parted no more than a millimeter as her words hit<em>and stunned</em>him - before he recovered with a too-loud laugh. The word echoed loudly in his head.<strong>Retiree.</strong>He could feel his manhood shriveling with each passing moment with no hope of recuperating. Was he laughing too long? He began to gulp down the remaining contents of his mug, giving Myrina the side-eye as he did.<br/><br/><strong>"<em>Temporary leave of absence,</em>"</strong>he finally corrected, adjusting his tone to be light and make it seem as if he could take the joke.<strong>"In fact,"</strong>he continued,<strong>"the Guild's replacement will be here tomorrow."</strong>That was a lie.<strong>"And I'll be going on a mission tomorrow."</strong>Another lie.<strong>"The Guild sent an Arcanist up into the Mountains to do some detective work on the magic that's been popping up and she hasn't checked back in. One of the new missions is to figure out what happened. Purely recon."</strong>That wasn't a lie. Yagnar had learned long ago that lies were best spread thin between layers of truth.<strong>"Gone this long, chances are pretty good that Nelly - the Arcanist - isn't coming back alive. She was powerful. Rumored to be working on something that would put her past Gold."</strong><br/><br/>To be Gold rank was no easy task - most Heroes happily capped out at Silver, past their prime and ready to settle down. To go past Gold was to be Legendary and there had simply been no worldly threat large enough to warrant bestowing such an honorary title. The last Legend had been some 250 years past when Beylor the Pirate had slain the God-like sea serpent, Leviathan, whose fury had wiped out the entire island chain of Jeshor Leo and its witch doctors. There had been little sympathy- the legend told of a witch doctor who stole an egg from the Leviathan's clutch and used foul magic in an attempt to corrupt the beast. The witch doctor had instead ended up breaking the egg and killing the child. But the Leviathan's grief knew no bounds, and it continued to terrorize sea-faring folk well past the sunken shores of Jeshor Leo.<br/><br/><strong>"Dunno what in the mountains that could be,"</strong>Yagnar said. To think that something Legendary-worthy could be so close was sobering and frankly, worrying.<strong>"But I aim to find out."</strong>Like every bad Orc, he just kept digging that hole a little deeper for himself.