Atharen, A Fantasy Roleplay Forum

Patrick had an early start to his morning, as he wanted to get out as soon as possible to begin his own private hunt. Ever since his father decided to drop that little bombshell the other night, all Patrick has wanted to do since then was to get out from under that man's roof. Sure he understood the value in honor and all, but his father was getting too pushy for Pat's own standards. He didn't want to join the knighthood or even any of the Vikingers, as none of them would bring the same sense of honor Albert had come to value.

As sad as it was for him to unwillingly admit it, there was a merit truth found within at some point. For Patrick there was no honor in following the footsteps of his old man, not when there were so many other things he wanted to achieve on his own. Too much lied out there in waiting, and Patrick felt that he couldn't afford to be weighed down by such expectations; lest he fail to live up to the standards his mother also held for him as well. Suffice it to say his search for another place hadn't started out very well, and with the sun well high in the sky; he knew lunch time had to be over when he finished yet another meeting with a property owner.

Most of the ones he had found were far too expensive, or had at least one slight obstacle that led him to decline the offer. So naturally when it came to visiting his tenth venue, the possibility started to look promising when he finally reached the place in question. It was in the Garwilt district just like the Inn was, which meant that the bartender was relatively close to home. Not so much of a bad thing, considering how far a few of the earlier flats were during his search. Still it was apparent that the Searing heat affected him a little, as a light pool of sweat drenched the color of his white shirt by the time he arrived.

The property owner in question turned out to be a woman this time, a lady with brunette hair and piercing green eyes to boot. She certainly looked to be an impressive figure, not necessarily young but not quite old either; somewhere on the verge of experienced and wise to be sure. She was definitely shorter than Patrick too, dressed in lighter clothes to also combat the searing heat. She first introduced herself as Mellanie, but then told him to refer to her as Mel afterwards. When he had asked about the flats she had available for rent of course, she didn't hesitate to show him the only one she had available. It looked to be a cozy little apartment, somewhat decently sized with two bedrooms and a washroom; and from the looks of it she already had the place furnished as well.

"Wow," He admired with a hearty grin, "this is actually a nice place."

"Don't you think so?" Mel inquired they walked back towards the reception area from the spare bedroom. "Got yourself a nice bedroom, and an extra room for an office or guest room if you so choose. I'm fairly certain it'll make a nice home for you!"

"Well alright then." Patrick remarked as he stood next to the sofa, with his arms brought into a fold as he felt ready to talk business. "How much per season?" Mel looked up at him from the sofa she'd plumply sat down on, her legs crossed as she caressed the arm of the sofa in her considerable thought.

"Ten thousand Dranari Farthing ought to do it." She came to decide as she looked up at him, an nonchalant smirk cast at him when Patrick himself couldn't help but chuckle.

"Seriously?! Ten thousand?! That's pretty steep even for a flat such as this."

"Well then you tell me how much you think it's worth." She challenged with a lilted tone of voice, clearly amused by his sudden need to barter.

"I can tell you right now, half the capital wants the same for less. Lookin' at the setup here though, I'd be willin' to bet it's worth around eight thousand." The comment made Mel laugh aloud, with a look that screamed 'bullshit' shot his way not a moment later. "Okay, maybe not eight thousand! How about another five hundred?!"

"You're joking with me!" Mel declared as she curled a finger in her hair. "You can't seriously think I'd go any lower than ten thousand."

Patrick looked to her with a deer in headlights look for a moment, leading Mel to giggle just as he quickly went a little higher. "Fine! Nine thousand! That's the highest I can work with lady."

"Oooooh, are you sure you can't go higher?" She teased further as she eyed him up and down, leading Patrick to look a little glum as a result. He didn't want to pay any higher than that, because he honestly wasn't sure if his coffer would be able to handle it. While the flat looked pretty spruced up it was still average in comparison, so he hoped that price would remain reasonably for both parties. Yet the odds weren't exactly in his favor at all. "Tell you what," Mel seemed to finally add as she leaned up from the sofa, "I'll make you a solid deal Mr. Barnell."

Patrick watched as Mellanie rose to a stand and approached him, with a playful look in her eyes as she drew close to him. "I'll let you rent this play for nine thousand farthing a season..." The look of hope was fresh on his face when he heard this. "But first I'd like to have a bit of a down payment beforehand." Damn. She wanted money firsthand, something he wasn't sure he'd be able to pay off right away; given the fact most of his funds were in the bank at the moment.

"Fine. How much?"

"Another kind of down payment." Mel posed to him as she started to walk past him, leaving Patrick to eye her in total puzzlement for another moment. Then he saw what she was referring to, and why she emphasized on the term a second time. Mellanie was walking towards the doorway to one of the rooms, the master bedroom in fact, as she looked back to him with an expectant look.

"...Oh." Patrick finally muttered as he realized what it meant. Initially he felt baffled by the fact she even suggested it, but when he considered that this was the perfect opportunity to snag a bargain deal; well Patrick certainly wasn't waiting any longer to seize that opportunity first hand.

---

Almost an hour after his brief little excursion, Patrick signed the deed for renting his new flat; and then shortly left afterwards to return to the inn. Albeit he certainly walked with a mixed sensation in his step, since he felt both exhausted yet rejuvenated by his rigorous 'down payment' earlier. By now the sun looked to be well into its descent towards the horizon, still with several hours left to burn daylight as the heat started to ease up a bit. Reluctant as he was to return to the inn right away, Patrick also wanted to find an opportunity to get started with packing.

While he hadn't any need to worry about moving a lot of furniture thankfully, much less buying his own, Patrick wanted to figure out what exactly he would be moving from one place to the other. So when he entered the premises once more he did so with a hearty grin, noticing his brothers at the bar as the general crowd seemed lesser than usual now. The second son made a moderately steady paced approach to the bar, hoping to be as casual as he possibly could about what took place earlier. "Well look who's back!" Connor greeted as both brothers looked to him warmly, even Albert peered out the office doorway to glimpse at him. Though that didn't last long, evidently they were still on shaky terms.

"How'd it go?" Dominik checked as he noticed Patrick gandering at the office, a hint of concern felt within his tone of curiosity.

"Huh? Oh it went great!" Patrick answered him in turn with a lofty shrug, still with a hearty grin on his face as he looked at the two of them. "Took all day but I finally found a place."

"Good to hear," Dominik remarked as he and Pat noticed Connor stifling a chortle, "what's so funny?"

"It's just-" The youngest brother nearly cracked into laughter, before pointing at particular spot over the collarbone of his neck area. "Clearly house huntin' hasn't been the only thing you've been up to!" Right away Dominik's eyes widened as he leaned over, to glimpse at the spot Connor was pointing out on Patrick's neck. Sure enough he started to laugh as well.

"By the Old Ones... Patrick!!" The oldest sibling started teasing him then, leading the middle son experience a flush in his cheeks. "Seriously? Not only do you get a place, but you had to go breakin' the bed in?!"

"It was a down payment!" Patrick urged in his defense, though lowly so that Albert hopefully didn't hear them. "Mellanie wouldn't lower the rent unless we... You know."

"Daaaaamn!" Connor couldn't help but coo enthusiastically with a brief nip at the knuckles of one of his fists. "How's it you get to be the one who has sex with your new property owner? Shit takes stones man!"

"Oh, like neither one of you wouldn't?" Patrick tested as he challenged the both of them, which neither one outright denied that they would or wouldn't have either. "Look whatever, is it bad?" Patrick wanted to check and make sure, so when he lowered the collar of his white shirt in front of them; both Dom and Con looked to him with widened eyes. This led to Patrick eyeing them in horror, as he now wanted a mirror just to inspect it himself.

"Lemme just say she really left a mark on you big brother." Connor confirmed his suspicions with yet more chortles, with Dominik joining in on the situation as well.

"Let's put it this way, if Ma ma or Pa pa see they'll definitely have questions to ask."

"Fuck!" Patrick swore through his teeth as he covered it up once more, hopeful that neither one of the parents were on their way at the moment. That's when he spotted Leliana exiting the kitchen, and realized he didn't even notice her before. "Lily! Need a break? We should go for a walk, get some air now that the heat's finally receded some." Sure enough his offer to the new hire brought more giggles and muttered teases, as the other two brothers watched to see how Leliana would react to his suggested offer.

Patrick honestly hadn't any idea just how hard at work she'd been, given that he was technically supposed to be showing her the ropes. Technically he had already started doing that yesterday when she joined the crew, but generally it helped to spread things out over a span of days at best. So while he could admit to himself that a sense of guilt lingered on that note, right now the current predicament he was in simply remained a priority to handle first. Lily was still new after all, and therefore showing her around the city for a little bit wouldn't hurt anything.

In fact he could've very easily just taken her along for another round of house hunting, so that way she could look at a few places also and determine what she wanted. So that way she'd eventually have an idea on where she could live, once she managed to get back on her feet as planned. Hell maybe even before that time ever came, she'd be well familiar with the layout of the city before then. "Uh, anywhere!" Was the only quick witted response Patrick could give, causing his two brothers to snort as they refrained from bursting into laughter. By now he already knew...

They were likely cracking jokes to one another as low as they could, about how 'fast' he was moving with Leliana and all that bullshit. And under the normal circumstances, he would've been completely fine with it; if anything he would've laughed and told them off like usual. But right now time wasn't a luxury on his side, not when he could see his mother walking down the stairwell in that moment. That's when he knew he would be in trouble, maybe not the kind where the parent disciplines their child; but still trouble he didn't want to touch with a ten foot pole.

"No problem, let's go!" He quickly responded to Lily in hearing that she'd need him to be a guide, which of course served as the perfect excuse to be out. Thus he didn't waste time in heading towards the doorway, almost inclined to drag Lily after him when he did walk. Then of course Elinora saw the two of them as they were heading out, and quickly called out to Patrick before he could open the door.

"Oh Patrick! How'd it go? Did the house hunting thing work out?" She inquired as she reached the bottom of the stairs, with Patrick nearly tensing up as he had to think quickly now. Dominik and Connor were both giggling now, enjoying the shit show that becoming Patrick's life at this point. Still he could get out of this, he just had to play it cool! Thus he turned to make sure the marked side of his neck was away from her, with a brief glance shot to Lily before forcing a hearty grin towards Nora.

"Still lookin', just thought I'd show Lily around while I was at it!" He briefly explained with a flick of the wrist, opening the door widely before once more glancing to Leliana; this time to signal for them to leave right away. "We'll be back in a bit!" He assured the mother before slipping out to walk into the street, hopeful that Lily followed after him to shut the door on her way out. While the two were leaving of course Elinora shot a peculiar look towards the two, Patrick in particular, before looking towards the other two brothers curiously. Obviously the gears in her head began churning, as she took to approach the bar to investigate; but before doing so she called out to the pair leaving.

"Alright, treat her nicely Patrick!" Nora insisted as she started to cross her arms, a determined grin cast to Dominik and Connor now that it was just the three of them.