It had been a while since Ber had enjoyed a good night out. Staff duty meant that he now dedicated much of his free time to trying to keep up with the soldiers who were still on active duty, but tonight, his friend Duncan Bayle had managed to convince him to join them on an overdue adventure out to one of the many taverns scattered throughout Skia. After a short debate, the Sour Sailboat Tavern won out. By the time Benedict Delaney entered the tavern, all of their drinks had arrived, and a combination of the alcohol and atmosphere had finally started chasing away some of the stress that seemed to have settled dep into Ber’s bones.

The sound of his name had the young man turning to see a familiar face heading toward them. Rising to his feet, he grinned and greeted the other man in turn as a chorus of other greetings rose from around the table. “Should’ve expected to see you here, Delaney,” He said, gesturing toward the empty chair beside him. “Come on, join us for a bit.” Although the many nights frequenting the same taverns had made them drinking buddies of a sort, Ber knew little of the lively man other than what he saw in the taverns and could deduce given his family name, but that was more than enough for Ber to decide that he was alright.

At the very least, Delaney’s outgoing friendliness eased some of the emptiness left by a certain Dresmondi who had also been the life of the party. He couldn’t help but think that the two would have gotten along very well.

Ber chased away the thoughts with a swig of ale. “It’s been a while,” He said, turning to the other man. “Up to anything exciting these days?”

Ben greeted the others that were with the solider and picked up the chair, turning it backwards and straddled it as he joined the group with the kind of grin that could light up any room. "Can't say no to an invitation to join you and your crew," he said to Ber with his always charming smile. His mug of ale that he'd ordered was set down in front of him just after he sat down and he picked it up and toasted the group. "To a night full of raucous fun and plenty of regrets in the morning," he said with a loud laugh before taking several long swallows.

He set the drink down and winked at Ber. "Gotta catch up to you lot, how long have you been here?" he asked, wondering exactly how many drinks he was behind.

"MUCH too long. Seems you've been much too busy for the likes of me," he replied to the young man. "Me? My life is always exciting," he said, leaning a little closer to emphasize the always. Though there had been more challenges and heartache of late, he kept that to himself. "But what about you?! I heard news that you'll be heading to Cambria in no time at all! Have you ever been there?" he asked.

Raising his own glass, Ber joined in on the toast with a grin before taking another swig himself. Eyebrows raised, he watched with mild amusement as Delaney continued drinking and chuckled at the explanation. “Long enough that it’ll take more than that for you to catch up,” Ber said, gesturing toward the other man’s drink before resting an arm on the table as he turned to face him.

“Always exciting, huh?” Despite the note of skepticism in his tone, a good-humored playfulness tempered any real pressure to push into business that wasn’t his. “You must be standing in more interesting corners than I am, Delaney.” Though Ber’s life had become busier as of late, barring one particular incident, he wouldn’t have called it exciting - and even the ball wasn’t as exciting as it was… something else. Eventful, maybe. Regardless, it didn’t take much to find a more interesting corner than the ones in the equipment shed or the supply room or similar locations often manned by those on staff duty. “But yeah, I’m headed to Cambria soon! Never been anywhere outside of the city. Have you?”

Ben smirked at the tone of skepticism and gave the man a playful wink. Sure, he was exaggerating a bit but he wasn't trying to pretend that he wasn't either and though he didn't know Ber well enough to know what his day to day life was like, he had once been in the same position that Ber was, a solider under the orders of many superior officers, just doing what he was told. Life as a royal guard wasn't always exciting but he did get to be in the room with plenty of important people and, more interestingly, hear what was going on in the world first hand. Plus he got to travel when the King left the city and that was his easily his favorite part of the job.

"Tis the life of a man who watches royals all day," he replied to Ber with a joking tone, "Such corners are occasionally interesting." He winked again and took several more swallows of his drink. After all, Ber had confirmed he had a lot of catching up to do.

"I have indeed," he said with a grin. "I've been to every kingdom save for Dresmond actually. Though everywhere but Lorendale were quick little trips accompanying the Ambassador as she delivered news. Those Cambrians looked like they could chew me up for dinner and spit out my bones," he said with a jovial laugh.

Given the man’s last name, it didn’t take much for Ber to deduce from the comment that his drinking buddy was a royal guard. Indeed, the realization hardly surprised him; many seasons ago, he’d met another Delaney who had also guarded the royal family. No doubt Kier and Ben knew each other, though the soldier had never thought to ask how.

Besides, the other man’s subsequent comment was far more interesting. With raised eyebrows, Ber reconsidered Delaney. “No shit, really?” Even as he said it, however, he could believe it. No doubt the king and his representatives traveled across Terra Nova, and they needed someone there to keep him safe. Ber swallowed more of his ale before leaning forward slightly, always interested in hearing about kingdoms other than his own. “I’ve heard the Cambrians are super strong,” He agreed, though he found the prospect a little less amusing than Delaney seemed to. No matter. “So everywhere but Dresmond, then. What were they all like? Which was your favorite?”

Ben let out a huff with a smile and nod at the comment about the Cambrians. "I didn't see them in action but based on how muscular they looked...I wouldn't want to fight one unless I had to. Luckily our visit was fairly peaceful and short lived. The Priestess seemed..." he couldn't think of the word and waved it away as the conversation turned to where he had been and what it was like.

"Lorendale is easily my favorite but part of that is longevity and familiarity. While the others I've visited only once, going into Lorendale is a fairly common occurance," he explained. "It's the most like home only it's beautifully sunny and the people are very friendly and hot as hell," he said with a chuckle, certain very fun memories going through his mind.

"Arynn Frey was cool, grassy plains and gorgeous beaches but the buildings were the most impressive. It's really a surprise they aren't more notable than they are but they mostly keep to themselves. Super smart folks, kind of intimidating in that way, and they live for a lot longer than we do. I met the princes there who look no more than somewhere in their 30s but they are in their 50s and 60s now, it's wild.

"Coheed was mostly just wooden huts in the plains, though the city we went to also was pretty close to the shore. There are so big men there. They are pretty scary too. Very rough and tumble kind of people. They seem to be the type to 'delight in violence' if you know what I mean. Cambria is pretty similar as far as technology and people but the woman in Coheed were very quiet and submissive where the women of Cambria are anything but. Not to mention the only Cambrian 'men' are children who get sent to Coheed once they are old enough. Kind of strange. I couldn't imagine sending any of my kids away."

Delaney was bigger and taller than Ber, and his position as a royal guard was testament enough to his experience and abilities. If that man didn’t want to fight a Cambrian, then the low ranking soldier next to him definitely didn’t want to. His unfinished impression of the Priestess caught Ber’s interest, but he let the matter drop when Delaney waved it away. Whatever he was going to say was probably less intriguing than what he shared about each kingdom anyway.

Before he’d met Zevran, the idea of traveling to other kingdoms had never lingered long in his mind. Though the idle curiosity about foreign places existed, it remained just that: an interest that, beyond his presumably inevitable deployments to Coheed and Cambria, would never be acted upon due to lack of resources and time. But that didn’t stop him from enjoying listening to what others had to say about their travels.

Ber grinned at the mention of Lorendale. It didn’t take a genius to figure out why a royal guard would have returned to that particular kingdom multiple times, and the thought sparked a long-buried memory of his own. “Now that you mention it,” He said, a note of mischief entering his voice. “Someone else told me it was sunny there, too, and that Lorendale has lakes and rivers, and that they have different magic than we do. She was from Lorendale and also friendly, but, uh, I probably shouldn’t call her hot as hell.” With some of the clues laid out, he wondered if his drinking buddy would be able to piece together with whom Ber had spoken.

Mention of Arynn Frey had a different conversation coming to mind, and nodding his agreement with Delaney’s summation of the people there, he said casually, “I didn’t believe it, really, when Prince Akagi told me how many years ago he met an enchantress.” As a commoner with almost nothing to his name, Ber didn’t have much to quietly boast about. Occasionally name-dropping royalty he’d met from other kingdoms was about as cool as it got for him. He tried not to enjoy it too much. “They really don’t look their age, do they? But he was definitely very smart. You’re saying they’re all like that?” He shook his head with an impressed exhale. If so, that kingdom was way too smart for Ber.

With the number of soldiers that had been deployed to Coheed and Cambria over the years, Nevermere’s two territories were far more familiar subjects. Ber had heard stories of the men in Coheed and women in Cambria but hadn’t quite known what to believe and what time and retellings had merely exaggerated. “How big are Coheedsmen?” He asked, wondering if fighting an angry Coheedsman or an angry Cambrian would be worse. “Like…” He searched around for an example of someone tall whom they both might know, but given that Ber was one of the shorter soldiers, everyone seemed tall to him. His mind jumped to the next closest comparison. “Like werewolf size?” He’d heard, too, how Cambria was a land of only women, which also struck him as rather odd – and a little unfortunate, because it meant that he would stick out like a sore thumb, which he would rather not do.

But Delaney’s last sentence distracted him from those thoughts, and he turned to the royal guard, head tilted slightly. “Oh, you’ve got kids?”

Ben tried to figure out which Lorendaler Ber was talking about, having picked up on some of the hints, but the only person he could think of that Ber might have talked to from there was Queen Iliana and he would have been both surprised and impressed if Berengar was actually hinting that the Queen was hot as hell. Ben decided this had to be the case just because it was more exciting than perhaps other alternatives.

He nodded his head when Ber asked about Arynn Frey. "All of 'em, man. Smart as hell. The whole country believes in education more than almost anything else," he said with a thoughtful shrug. "Not the worst goal, honestly, but I wouldn't want to get into any kind of debate with one of them."

The subject turned to Coheed and Ben couldn't help but chuckle as Ber tried to compare them to a werewolf. "I suppose there are few that are particularly tall but that could be said for any other kingdom. It's more in their strength that makes them so large and intimidating. Some of the biggest muscles I've ever seen for sure and with the mind to use them more than they probably need to."

With a final question Ben smiled and nodded. "I do, yes. Three kids actually, if you can believe it," he said with a chuckle. Even he didn't always believe it. "But my oldest two are adopted siblings so only the youngest is mine by blood."

“Wow.” Compared to that of Nevermere’s nobility, Ber’s education was paltry at best. Taught first by the streets of Skia and then by the halls of the military wing, he knew very well how quickly he would lose a debate against a Nevermerean, let alone an Arynnite who had dedicated their entire life to seeking knowledge. He wondered how they kept it all straight; for him, simply trying to read was a headache and a half. “If they spend all their time learning about things…” With a sheepish grin, he shook his head. “Definitely would lose that debate.”

Drinking more of his ale, Ber listened to the other man’s clarification about the Coheedsmen and silently wondered whether Coheed or Cambria made for an easier deployment. Not that he could do anything about that now.

As the conversation turned toward Delaney’s family, Ber couldn’t help but grin at the obvious care the royal guard had for his family. “Three kids must keep you busy. What are their names again?” Although the younger soldier didn’t tend to talk about his family - or lack thereof - for obvious reasons, he didn’t mind listening to others talk about theirs, and he didn’t remember if Ben Delaney’s had ever come up before. After a brief pause in which he finished the rest of his drink, he added, “And you like it, being a dad?”

Some people, he knew, dreamt about the family they would one day raise from before they had even entered training. Ber had not and still didn’t, because for him, nothing in the future - especially of that nature - felt guaranteed. Simply refusing to entertain such thoughts hurt less than the disappointment would when such dreams inevitably went unfulfilled.

Ben and Ellison had a unique arrangement in their marriage, one that they didn't openly announce of course, but it had worked for them extremely well. With each of them having interest in people of the same sex, their marriage allowed them to avoid the constant nagging of their families or for other pursuers to be on their tails while also allowing each other the freedom to explore their other interests. Not that that didn't mean they didn't care about each other. In fact they loved each other quite deeply, a connection that had grown from mere friendship over the years. The freedom they found in their marriage had helped to grow their affection for one another.

"Hollie, Otto, and Sarilla," he answered Berengar. The final name would certainly be familiar to any Nevermeren. "A family name," he explained, "we usually call her Rilly." He smiled at the man's other question and nodded. "I wasn't sure that I would. I feared being even more tied down and I still hope that I'm not somehow raising them incorrectly. But yes, I've found a different kind of purpose in fatherhood. I'd do anything for them. Any of them." It didn't matter to him that Hollie and Otto were adopted. He loved them no less than he did Sarilla.

"And nursemaids and nanny's are helpful too. Ellison and I do enjoy our time away," he said with a little smile, taking another long drink of his ale. His leg moved slightly, his foot bumping up against Ber's. It wasn't clear whether it was intentional or not but Ben didn't move it away either.

"But tell me more about you, Ber. Where do you find your passion?"

One of the bearers of the werewolf curse, Ber certainly did recognize the final name and tilted his head slightly at the accompanying explanation of it being a family name. Was Delaney’s wife born a Morrigan? Or was that family’s Sarilla simply the most well-known one? Not that it mattered much, in the end, and Ber soon found himself distracted by the royal guard’s concerns. He didn’t quite wave them away, but raising his glass automatically to take a bracing drink - only to find it empty and lower it again - he resorted to lifting a shoulder in a half shrug. “You love them, so you can’t be doing that bad.” The unconditional devotion of a parent, the advantages of the Delaney family name, the attentions of nursemaids and nannies… “That’s more than a lot of other kids have.” If street rat like Ber and Regan could scrabble together some sort of living, then he thought that nothing Delaney could do would irreparably harm little Hollie, Otto, and Sarilla.

When Delaney’s foot nudged his, he let out an automatic apology despite not having been the one to move his leg. Reflexively, he moved his foot slightly away and offered a quick, understanding smile at the accident, never once considering that it could be an intentional move.

“My passion?” Ber paused, somewhat surprised to find himself rather stumped by the question. Certainly, he had reasons to get out of bed each morning, but they tended to feature more of a dogged determination to keep going rather than something that particularly excited him. Much of his life was like that: without much to be passionate about, and nothing remotely similar to fatherhood, like the royal guard had described. “I dunno if I have any passion,” He mused, scratching his head. “I don’t really do much. Work, hang out with the others. Sometimes I go help an apothecary out on the edge of Skia and take her dog for a walk. But…” As his voice trailed off, his sentence ended in another shrug.

Arguably the most interesting part of his life had disappeared after the ball.

Ben was a little amused by Ber's response to the foot bump but he also didn't try again, not willing to push if there was more to his reason for backing away than simply assuming it to be an accident.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the first time he'd heard similar tales from Nevermere soldiers. Many of them got so wrapped up in their duty to the job that it was all they seemingly had. What a shame. Ber needed a hobby. Though he did raise a curious brow at the mention of the random apothecary and her dog. He didn't push the topic though.

"You know," he said, leaning a little closer to Ber as if he was going to share a secret. "It's totally okay to have hobbies and be a good solider," he said with a playful tease. "And you can't discover new hobbies unless you get out there and try stuff you haven't before. Surely there must be one thing you're curious about?"

The conspiratorial air with which Delaney leaned toward him had Ber grinning and leaning forward in turn. He weathered the teasing with good-humored amusement, raising his eyebrows at the royal guard. “Really?” The soldier asked, mostly joking. “That’s not what they tell us. Work, eat, sleep, train, and work some more.”

But Ben had a point. Hobbies were good. When Zevran had been around, Ber had taken to fairly regularly sparring and spending time with him, but the Dresmondi’s absence had left an emptiness that the Nevermerean had yet to consistently find a way to fill.

“I like hearing about what it’s like in the other kingdoms, but there aren’t a lot of people here who can talk about them,” Ber said after thinking for a moment. Or, at least, talk about them like an inhabitant of the kingdom in question could. “Don’t think that’s really a hobby though.” Plus the two of them had covered that topic already, so it was back to the drawing board. He fiddled with the empty cup and tried to remember what the other men in the barracks talked about doing in their free time. His mind, ever helpful, drew a blank. Maybe Ber just didn’t know what all the options were. Maybe now was a good a time to explore as any.

With a grin, he turned the question back on his companion. “You know, you sound like you know a lot more about this kind of thing. What do you do when you’re not with your family or working?” A pause. “Any recommendations for what I should be curious about?”