Going for a wander and taking a gander,

[Devlyn Nox]

The past two months had been... messy; at best. The Queen had completely lost her grip on reality, the King was dead, along with a large number of the other Knights and all together everything had gone to Hell. Boredom was starting to set in on the edges of his mind and the familiarity of the city was slowly driving him insane. Devlyn was desperate for a change in scenery, for a change in pace. So now here he was in the White Forest, not too far outside of the city, checking out a few rumours regarding the Order. He hadn't been told to come here, but everyone was so busy running about the place trying to organise stuff, so he didn't see the harm in taking his own time out to come take a look around. Nobody would miss him anyway, he doubted.

His irides were a dim and dull greenish-blue, toned down from the normally vivid colour he was so used to having them at. Not only did his eyes look different to everything else, but everything else looked different to his eyes. It was greyer, darker and everything was far less colourful and boring. His vision was worse when his eyes were like this. But he could handle it; he had to. In these surroundings, even with the hood of his cloak up, Devlyn's eyes would stick out like a sore thumb. He loved the distinction his vibrant eyes gave him, but sometimes they were just a right pain.

Skulking in between the thick forestry, Devlyn kept his head low and his senses sharp. Coming to an opening in the foliage, he crouched down low onto his hunkers and quickly scanned the area for any signs of life. Eventually he sighed, rising back up to his full height. It was useless. Those rumours were probably just that - rumours. And eventually, he would head back to Du Aurella and the Castle and whenever he was asked where he had been for the past two days, he would just have to admit that he was so desperate for something to do that he listened to the insane ramblings of a begger. Oh joy of joyous joys. He already got enough abuse about his trust in the street drifters, but this would just throw everything up onto a whole new level.

[Soren Vigil]

<sub>It was hard for the male to leave his post anymore. There would be too many questions on the part of others. He did manage to slip into the streets and duck into an alley to change. The light colored hair faded to a weird red color with a purplish tint, his eyes were light lavender and he somehow changed how he held his body. He looked more feminine than he ever had before. He wouldn’t act this way around the Knights, but he was walking and acting this way to avoid detection. He even managed to switch clothes into an outfit with a purplish tint. He looked much like a traveling bard, considered he carried a small flute and he was humming a song. Surprisingly, this was the strongest part of his disguise…Not many people would think that the Lieutenant General of the Knights would be singing songs about such simple things.

Though, he was doing it gladly, so there was no way for him to come across as himself. He smiled at women and men who dared to give him a second glance, sometimes out of curiosity, but most of the time out of some sort of interest. He looked way different in this form and it was amazingly that people didn’t want to connect him to the city’s poor population. He was moving swiftly out of the city, flashing a bard’s ID as he passed the guarded gate. He was moving away from the city, but he was close enough to be there in case something bad happened. Unlike the other male in the forest.

He moved through, swiftly and silently; just enjoying the place around him. He turned around to see Devlyn and cursed under his breath. He knew what the other’s race was…meaning; he could very easily be caught. Though, it’d be best to keep up this façade as long as he could. He slowly sang as he moved along the water, listening carefully to the rushing water sounds. He slowly started to sing in Elvish, smiling at the song about the water’s wave. It was merely a song about the joys of slowing down, but it had so few lyrics that it sounded like a male who didn’t know what he was singing. He knew perfectly well and he turned to the other, flinging purple hair out of his eyes as he flashed the other a simple smile.

“Hello, my name is Imuerdo.” He said with the gentlest smile he could manage. It was surprising how different he felt when he let himself act like this. He slowly returned to singing, not wanting to bother with the flute, since he wasn’t alone. He wasn’t the best at the flute; actually, he was fairly bad compared to some people. He only came out here to practice and to relax, but now that he needed to be on guard, it would be rather hard to do what he pleased.</sub>

[Devlyn Nox]

Deciding there wasn't much need to be on guard anymore, Devlyn moved further into the opening and sat down, removing the hood of his cloak and letting the sun hit his skin properly for the first time that day. He allowed his eyes to glow that gorgeously bright blue once more; the colour that some of the more oblivious humans (the ones who failed to realise what such vibrance meant) found to be so attractive and intriguing. Running a hand back through his golden blonde hair, Devlyn sighed. It wasn't often he got to do this and he really shouldn't have been letting his guard down so much, but it wasn't as though he was completely oblivious to his surroundings - he was aware enough to pick up on the quiet scuffling of a light and cautious foot as it treaded gracefully nearby.

Maybe the rumours were true after all. Immediately Devlyn was on his feet, realising that by now it was pointless to dim his eyes anymore. Whoever was lurking nearby would already have seen the bright blue gleaming orbs before anything else. So, instead, he used it to improve his eyesight enough to spot the nearby 'bard' wandering along the waterside. Devlyn tried to hide the confusion he felt as the newcomer began to sing. In Elvish? Devlyn was far from fluent in the language, but he knew enough of it to recognise some of the very simple words. Deciding that this new arrival probably wasn't much of a threat, the young Vernula decided to remain wary, even after he was introduced to the suddenly all-too-familiar face.

'Sir?' he thought, before returning the gentle smile as best he could. 'Alright Dev, now's not the time to go angering your new superior. He obviously doesn't want you to recognise him.' Why he was thinking to himself in the second person, he had no clue, but regardless he decided to just play dumb for now. The half-elven, half-vernula Liutenant was known for being one fond of winning - anyone with even a remote sliver of Vernula blood had a fondness for success. Devlyn figured he felt no immediate need to expose his superior just yet. Offering a polite bow of his head to the "bard" before him, he finally spoke in the commonest tone he could muster. Normally around Soren he would have been attentive and obedient and courteous. Now he would have to make an attempt at appearing very... cavalier.

It would certainly be one of the only times he would be able to play around with his boss without too many repurcussions. "Hello there. I'm Devlyn, but feel free to just call me Dev." He left a small gap in his speech, allowing the Elven to continue singing. Well, he had to admit, of all the things he expected least of the Liutenant General, a good voice was certainly one of them. He listened briefly before finally deciding to openly compliment him on it. Devlyn had never paid much attention towards romantic antics - he was used to women (and men) eying him up, flirting with him, even the odd grope or two, but he had rarely ever properly reciprocated those feelings. This wasn't to say that he was ignorant of beauty and charm though.

"You have some stunning vocal chords on you there," he flattered, with a quick (but blatant) sweep of his pastel blue eyes over the other's anatomy. Ooh, he would really have some fun with this. He was quite confident that the other would fail to realise that Devlyn could see through his disguise. No, Devlyn had been sweet-talking people and playing dumb for far too many years to trip up in his own facade now.

[Soren Vigil]

Ok, so maybe the other wasn’t as stupid as he thought. Soren certainly was more on guard after the other introduced himself, he had an idea that he had been found out, but he wasn’t going to go and give it all up if he could help it. He met those bright, blue eyes and nice, ”Well, it’s nice to meet ya Dev.” He said as he kept on singing. He knew that if the other did recognize him, he would be in major trouble, but then again, Soren was known for…giving people hell when they displeased him. He kept his appearance soft and carefree looking, but inside, he was waiting for anything to happen that would give away that he had basically been compromised…Which was a hard thing to search for.

He stopped singing at the compliment, “Hmm? Well, thank ye. I’ve been singing all my lived life.” He said with a shrug as he went back to singing. This song was a little faster and used some more complicated Elvin words. He remembered his mother singing it to him over sixty years ago, which was something that was close to heart. He wasn’t sure what it was completely about, but it was a story. At the moment, he could only guess it was about his parents because of the way it was calm and loving for a single night, with the male promising to always love her, while the next morning brought a heart breaking and a male walking away. He slowed down on the part about the woman’s life fading away, as she twiddled her thumbs and waited for a new life to be born.

After the new life is born, the song didn’t mention the woman again.

Soren looked up at Devlyn, decided that he had spent enough time singing as he sat himself down against a tree. He pulled out a flute to fiddle with, realizing that if he was caught, this would look very bad for him. “So, Dev, whatcha doing all the way out here?” He asked curiously as Soren played with a few notes on the flute. He didn’t bother blowing, but he fingered out the notes that would go with his song. Maybe one day, if he could ever get away from the Military, he would take to this look more often and would even find someone to play the flute with him. He’d be able to make some good money off of that. Though, that was a bit away and that was if he survived fighting the Order the amount of times that he needed to fight them.

It would be funny if his father could see his son now. Acting as a completely different man, one that would definitely be killed on sight should he be recognized by any high ranked Knights…Well, anyone who was higher than him? His father didn’t know about his son, which made this whole thing so bittersweet. After all, it meant that Soren got to bring the bad news and we all knew that he was pretty good at that from the way he acted in the castle. He was fine with no lighting, it didn’t bother him one bit, but what did bother him was the lack of air.

The lack of air was why he did things like this, why he left and changed his appearance, voice and posture to relax. Sure, he didn’t mind looking this feminine, but he did prefer his natural looks a bit more. After all, they were more who he was, not what he had become…If thatr made any sense to anyone around here. He turned back to Devlyn as he started to sing the song about his parents again. He started slow, skipped over the middle of the night like his mother had always done, but he hummed it instead. Then, he started singing slowly, sadly and almost mournfully as the morning came in his song. It was funny how well he could sing, even when he was twisting his vocal cords. Though, he wouldn’t ever consider people knowing about this in the current day, maybe another time.

Definitely another time.

[Devlyn Nox]

Devlyn caught onto the tense ripples flowing through the half-breed's form. He found it hard to think of him as anything else right now. He kept in mind that this was his superior, but the idea that he didn't have to recognise him as such was letting his mind run wild and, of course, that was the first title to come into his head. Soren wasn't "Sir" or "Liutenant" anymore, he was "Half-breed". The urge to call him that when Devlyn next spoke rose up from a pit in the bottom of his stomach - the blonde haired Vernula had long since grown into the habit of finishing most sentences with some term or another; be it "Sir" or "Friend" or whatever other kind of name he could come up with. It never really spawned from the other person's name, no, it was more from their occupation or appearance.

"A pleasure to meet you aswell, Imuerdo." Well, that was quite the accomplishment for him.

Devlyn wondered how often Soren did this kind of thing. Dress up and pretend to be someone else and go for a bit of a wander. It was understandable, of course, and with a position such as his, it was no doubt that the Liutenant General got recognised a lot more than Devlyn did, but still. Devlyn liked to take on other identities too, just for the fun of it, to play a trick; he had never really felt much of an impulse to change his appearance though. Of course, he did prefer to just keep his general features hidden or shadowed, so his face wouldn't be remembered, so he supposed it all just depended.

Devlyn smiled warmly at him, "All your life, really?" He doubted that, but it was easy to maintain a genuine tone in his voice. "How delightful." Not really, because he knew it was probably a lie, even if he was part Elven. Soren came across as far too bitter and angry a person to have grown up with any sort of song. He let the other fall back into singing a new tune, faster and far too Elven for Devlyn to really care about the meaning or the words. He let his gaze wander a little, taking in some of their surroundings a little more adeptly, before turning back to watch Soren -- "Imuerdo" -- go and sit down aganst a tree and pull out... a flute?

He was lucky to be so experienced at hiding his emotions, else he probably would have started laughing by now. His face remained perfectly bare of a reaction to the object, however. Devlyn glanced at Soren as he inquired to his reasons for being out here. He smirked at him, remaining subtly quiet; the same reaction he would have given to any old "bard" that had come along and asked the same question. He traced his fingers over the contours of an old tree's bark, seemingly ignoring the question posed to him until he shifted his weight and leaned against the Oak.

"Oh you know," he sighed casually as the sunlight danced across his playful eyes, "Just taking in the sights. And you? Forgive me if I'm incorrect, but I had taken to the presumption that your kind preferred somewhat--" a condescending smirk, "quieter surroundings."

Well, he did decide that he would have some fun with this, and what could be more entertaining than showing Soren a different side to himself, whilst acting completely unawares to doing so? It was far too tempting to resist and Devlyn liked taking advantage of the situation. For the obedient little pet he usually proved to be, he definitely liked to be in control when it came to non-occupational matters.

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