Wulfric

Foreigner

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237
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Player
Atrice

About Wulfric

Prince of the Chatti

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Joe Armstrong
Location
Rome

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What am I to you?
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Joe Armstrong
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Rome

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Sister and Brother

Started by Wulfric · May 28

April 77AD
“You know you’ll be sorely missed Wulfric.” Said one of his co-workers at the market, as they helped each other load a cart with sacks of grains, “You’re nicer than any of the other overseers.” The man said with a grin and Wulfric smiled, “Thank you. Maybe I will miss you also.” The work had been different from what he was used to, but he hadn’t hated it. In fact, working like this felt rather good. And earning coin felt good too. They were his coins. Not given to him because of his rank or because people wanted him to do favors for them, but simply because he was good at what he did and he did the right things.
They finished loading the cart and his co-worker picked it up at the front, “I will come tomorrow.” Wulfric promised and the other waved, before he pulled the cart himself into the warehouse. Wulfric’s shift was finished for the day and he went to find the overseer to tell he was leaving and would be back tomorrow. He still had to settle the deal he’d had with the landlord of the building where he lived, and there were other loose strings he needed to tie too. Like writing that letter to his father, as Varinia had suggested.
He needed to figure out what to say in the letter though. Wulfric usually didn’t write letters, after all, so how to even begin? He was going over it in his mind as he left the warehouse and walked straight into a woman on her way in. They both stumbled and he looked up first, “Apologies.” He said quickly, not one wishing to stir trouble. He looked at her, about to ask if she was alright, when he noticed her familiar features… “Hilda?”
@Sara
Walking In The Air

Started by Wulfric · April 22

Late March, 77AD
It had been a while, since he’d been back here last time. He had actually come back a few weeks after Charis had come to see him at the market. And he’d had time to think the whole thing over a few times. He still didn’t quite grasp how such a sweet and kind girl could turn into the opposite over such a short span of time. She’d been so nice and friendly when he met her at his father’s domus. She even said she took his advice for Peregrinus and sleeping habits. But then she came to him at his job at the marketplace and told him to leave Rome and not come back. Few had treated him nicely here in Rome. Most seemed to misunderstand him or simply just not understand him at all. There was nothing for him here. Or, not much.
He had tried to not give up too easily. He had told Charis the truth about why he was here, just like he told his father. Why would they not believe him? But he said to his father after that dinner party, that he’d be back and so he kept his promise, at least to begin with. He was stubborn. His mother had sometimes said that he inherited that from his father. He never saw that before… but now that he knew that Wulfstan was not his father, he understood. He had come back to his actual father’s house quite a few times, knocking on the door and walking inside. This was his father’s house. He was not just yet another visitor here, so why should he wait outside? Yet every time he was met by a slave and eventually asked to leave, because the Dominus was not at home.
That had happened quite a few times over the next few months. Antonia was apparently never at home either, so he'd never met his half-sister. And if Charis was there with Peregrinus, she stayed out of the way. Eventually he stopped coming. Charis was right. He clearly wasn’t wanted. Not by anyone but his half-brother Teutus it seemed. At least they got along. Time went by… and now springtime was coming and he had always planned he’d return to Germania when next spring came. That time was now. He had finished with the warehouse at the marketplace and had told the landlord of the insula he lived in, that he was leaving very soon.
And now, he showed up in front of his father’s house one last time. To tell that he was leaving. He didn’t expect them to be sad that he had to leave. He wasn’t sure what he expected. But it felt right to tell them. So there he was, outside the house, pulling himself together to knock on that door. Why didn’t he just do it? It felt so… final, somehow, to do it. Rome had not always treated him nicely, but still, it wasn't easy to just say goodbye, was it? Once he left, he wasn't sure he'd ever come back, after all. He might not see any of the people he met here, again. Wulfric sighed and leaned against a wall opposite the front door to his father’s domus.
(( OPEN THREAD FOR ANYONE ))
Amends

Started by Ione · February 8

Two weeks after Male Fantasy, Mid-late December 76AD
Ione didn't have much free time. She was allowed to the baths, accompanied by the other girls and a guard, and to go fishing in pairs usually (unless she stayed very close to the Elysium), but actual spare time to do with as she pleased was reserved for festival days. Today was such a day; the third day of Saturnalia was amongst them and unlike other brothels, the Elysium stayed open in the evenings. Titus probably assumed the girls wouldn't complain and he'd done a killing in trade, so in reward he'd allowed them a morning and afternoon off - shutting up shop and pushing them out of the door, their meagre savings in hand.
Ione knew exactly where she was going to go and bundled up in her cloak, its fastenings tied tight around her throat to hide the bruises and perfectly neat line of a cut mark below her collarbone, she hurried to a bakery down the street. Her savings were pitiful, but she could afford a honey cake. It was practically all she could afford and cradling it in her palms as she moved her willowy frame through the streets to the insula, she felt humiliated. A cake wasn't enough to make amends, not by a long way, but it was all she could offer. She knew her dominus would be furious that she was here, and she kept sparing nervous glances over her shoulder as she climbed the rickety wooden stairs up to the familiar apartment. She had to do this though, the guilt had been gnawing away at her since that awful, dreadful day.
She knocked quickly and tentatively on his door and stood back, biting her lip and shooting glances up and down the external corridor. No answer. She knocked again, a little louder this time. No answer. She wondered if he could see through the cracks in the wood and was purposefully ignoring her. She deserved that. She bit her lip and knocked again, and this time a head poked out from the apartment next door. It was a middle-aged woman, dowdy and red-cheeked and she shot Ione a glare, almost as if she could see exactly what she was just by her bearing. "He's not here. He's at work. Piss off." Oh. She bit her lip again and stepped back and the woman slammed her door shut. She only had a few hours until sundown and she'd be expected back at work but she'd wait. Quietly, she moved to curl herself into a seated position opposite his door. It wasn't how most girls were spending their Saturnalia off, but it was how she needed to spend hers.

TAG: @Atrice
Lost Cause

Started by Wulfric · January 31

Early December, 76 AD - after Male Fantasy
He suddenly felt very exposed, in a way he’d never felt like in Rome until now. But as he sat there, still leaning against the wall to his insula, people were looking at him. The fight was over, Ione and the guard had left and although the fight had been broken up, no one had come to ask how Wulfric was doing. He knew he must look like a mess. He could feel that his one jaw and cheek was swollen and would most likely turn blue or purple soon, and he still had the taste of blood in his mouth. And his clothes were all dirty and dusty. This was so bad. He couldn’t turn up for work like this! He wouldn’t get a thing done anyway.
He had luckily not passed out, but he knew he’d been close. And his face was hurting everywhere, as was his chest and he had a terrible headache. How was he going to drag himself up the stairs to his insula? And what about the warehouse, when they expected him to come and he didn’t… it was fucked up, all of it. He needed help, now. And the inhabitants of his area didn’t seem to want to give it to him.
Wulfric closed his eyes, thinking he might just sleep here then. Once spring came, it really was time to return for Germania. It was now more obvious than ever, that he was very unwanted in Rome.
@Chevi
Male Fantasy [M - S]

Started by Wulfric · January 11

Early December, 76AD
It had been a strange day, the day he met Ione. That day had begun as an ordinary day. He’d been at work at the marketplace and in the afternoon he was on his way home for a rest. Apparently a bit too busy with going home, since he forgot to see where he was going and fell. And hurt his knees and ruined the trousers his mother had given him. But Ione the whore – that’s the name he heard for such women the most – had helped him cleanse the wounds and then she had also offered herself to him. And he couldn’t stop thinking about that. What it would be like and so on. The pictures painted onto the walls of her simple room were also unforgettable.
A few weeks had gone by now since that day and his knees looked much better. The breeches had patches on the knees now and life quickly went back to normal. But he had tomorrow off and could afford to sleep in. So he thought that now would be the time. He paid a messenger boy a small coin to go to the Elysium and say that Wulfric wished for Ione’s services specifically and he would like for her to come to his home. He still lived in a simple one-room insula high up in such a building. It was cheap and really all he needed. But he didn’t lack coin now, since he rarely spent them on anything.
The messenger boy came back. The deal could happen, if Wulfric would go to the Elysium to pick up the girl and pay beforehand. And it wasn’t cheap either, considering this would last for a while and it was taking a girl away from the brothel, so she couldn’t work multiple people in one night. He still felt a bit weird about that, the thought of her servicing many men every night. He would far from be her first. But she’d like to see him again and he had decided he’d like to see her too. So there it was.
He showed up at Domus Venus just after sunset, telling the guard outside that he was waiting for Ione and he did bring the coin for her. While he was waiting, another girl came at him, trying to persuade him into letting her go down on him while he waited. But he pushed her away. He’d made his decision and it was final. Besides, he didn’t like doing it out in the open. Hopefully she’d be here soon.
@Sara
Trips and Tricks

Started by Ione · January 10

November, 76AD
Ione tried her best with the bucket but she really was the worst possible choice to be sent out to fetch water from the pump. Her arms shook even heaving it - empty - further and further up the queue of chattering slaves. At this time of day she could be spared from the brothel, but that meant only for other errands and refilling their water was a key chore that everybody hated, and somehow seemed to always fall on her shoulders. The queue was long and she cast a worried glance back over her shoulder, debating whether it would be worse to be late back or to come back with no water. She bit her lip, glancing nervously between the queue and the Elysium which she could see only a few hundred paces down the street.
It wasn't hard to work out that, that was where she came from. The thin cloak she wore overtop of the toga wasn't exactly concealing and nor was the split lip she was sporting but few paid her much attention. The only people here were slaves or freedmen, and given they were in Regio IV, they had no right to look down on a whore. Nobody here was rich, and nobody here was in the business of judgement. For the most part. She still felt an errant hand tug on the corner of her toga as she moved out of the line and glanced around to see a man, leering, clearly still drunk from the nightmare. "Even that will cost you I'm afraid." And he immediately let go. It always seemed that she was enticing when considered free, but the second you mentioned coin she became about as interesting as mud.
She figured it would be easier to explain the absence of water by a grabby customer than spend an hour waiting for it, and so moved back down the street, straining under the weight of the empty bucket until she was a few paces away from the Elysium. She took a moment, leant against the wall to catch her breath. This early there was no need for a man on the door. She bit her lip, trying to fashion her excuse as best she could and set the bucket down on the floor...unfortunately, right in the path of an oncoming pedestrian...

TAG: @Atrice
When in a Roman bath

Started by Azarion · December 15, 2021

Early December, 76AD
Even though Azarion had been living inside the city for more than a year, there was still a staple of Roman urban living that had eluded him so far: the baths. Sure, he knew how to bathe, and kept himself clean using the facilities that belonged to the stables. But if everyone else could be believed, that was a far cry from the bathing culture the Romans invented. In the eighteen years of his life, Azarion had only been familiar with washing, first in the rivers and lakes of Sarmatia where he learned to swim, and then more or less improvising as much as slaves were allowed.
Now that he was a charioteer, slowly rising out of the masses of slaves in the city, Marcus kept reminding him that he was allowed to go to actual thermae if he wished. A real Roman bath house. Azarion avoided the issue as long as he could, but eventually Tiranes found out too, and somehow now here they were, in the doors of the part of the thermae that was open to slaves, and the freedmen of the nearby faction stables. Azarion frowned, but very enthuastic about the visit. He looked at his cousin, shrugging. Do we have to?
@Sharpie
Following Up

Started by Tertia Charis · November 23, 2021

Mid-March 76AD
By the time Charis had actually tracked Wulfric down, it was a month or so after her conversation with Tertius. It wasn't that he was exceptionally difficult to find: a couple of light enquiries at various stalls in the market had led her to this warehouse, it was more that she a) didn't have the time to spend on the errand, and b) had been putting it off. Being in league with her dominus was an uncomfortable feeling for her. She hadn't been on 'his side' of anything since she'd come to Rome, but their joint suspicion of his newfound son was something other than Peregrinus that they had in common, and it was an unpleasant feeling, but she knew she couldn't put this off forever. If she did try and ignore the fact that Wulfric was here for...unkown reasons, the curiosity would eat her alive.
So here she was, awkwardly standing outside of a bustling warehouse - stacked to high-heavens with produce, waiting to try and catch a glimpse of her...step-son? No, she wasn't married to Tertius...Peregrinus' half-brother sounded less awkward. She tried to ignore the fact that Wulfric was older than her, that made the whole thing all the odder and much more complicated. When she did spot his face, she had to do a double take. He really was the spitting image of Tertius - his parentage really couldn't be denied. She swallowed, and weaving through the big, burly men that stood around lugging crates or chatting, she moved to stand in front of him. She let out a small smile and inclined her head, "Dominus, sorry, I know you're busy but I thought I would stop by to see you, I was in the market and well..." Well, she didn't have an excuse.

TAG: @Atrice
A head for business

Started by Teutus Quinctilius Varus · September 15, 2021

August 76

Teutus had found and secured the use of a warehouse near the river's edge, located between the Aventine and where the river swept around Regio XIII, after passing Tiber Island, the Probus Bridge and the remains of the bridge defended in antiquity by Horatius. It was a good-sized warehouse, easily acessible from the river, with its own wharf, and easily secured (though Teutus would ensure that he had a couple of trustworthy guards on the site at all times - he was not going to have a guard or two there only when there was something valuable on the premises, and give that fact away). There were other warehouses nearby and he neither knew nor cared what was stored in any of them, save only that their presence would help disguise his own goods should anyone come looking with less than honest intentions.
He was on the site today to ensure that the latest shipment was stored properly, dressed as befit his station as the owner of the business in tunic and pallium and with a commanding presence (if he didn't particularly feel commanding he could at least look it, and followed his father's example as far as appearances went).
Some of his goods would be sold directly, some via auction (he knew a good auctioneer who would get decent prices and not charge exhorbitantly for his services). All in all, trade was good, and he could present his father with a good report of his dealings.
He turned as his clerk murmured, "Domine, there's someone to see you..."
There was indeed. "How can I help you?"

Tag: Open!
Any Way the Wind Blows

Started by Tertius Quinctilius Varus · June 24, 2021

January, 76 AD, the day after Everything I Wanted
He’d told his son from Germania that he could come back for a proper meal and a talk. Why on Earth did he do that, again? Wulfric’s arrival was sudden and unexpected and he wasn’t at all sure what to do with it. Tertius didn’t return to his work right after Wulfric had left, but instead sat thinking, for quite a while. Drank a sip of wine or two, tried to comprehend it all. Finally though, he returned to his chores, only to be interrupted by Hector, standing by the entrance to the tablinum. Tertius put down the papers and looked at his personal slave, wondering what he wanted.
“I thought I would tell you, that your guest lingered. He spoke to Charis in the garden.” Hector explained and Tertius arched a brow. Why would Wulfric speak to Charis? Why would Charis speak to Wulfric? Was there something they both kept hidden from him? Did they know each other, one foreigner and another? Hector knew Tertius probably had questions and added, “I couldn’t hear what they talked about.” Hector said and Tertius nodded again. So Hector only knew they talked. Tertius should not draw conclusions, it was a bad habit of his. He’d find out about it all tomorrow. And maybe he should invite Charis to share the meal with them. The mother of his newest son and then Wulfric. He wondered if he could convince Teutus to come, but his oldest son seemed so… distant, lately, he couldn’t figure him out. But Tertius made sure to inform Teutus there would be a dinner with a guest the following evening and Teutus was more than welcome to attend. He would not pressure his son. He hadn’t told Teutus that Wulfric was his brother either, because it appeared that Teutus was already disliking Peregrinus. What would he feel if he learned that he had another brother, without Tertius being present? Tertius, Hector and possibly Charis were the only ones who knew and it had to stay that way until he chose otherwise.
The following evening happened sooner than he would have thought - but everything had been arranged. Some good, traditional Roman dishes to be served and the best wine. Tertius waited in the atrium for their guest and for Charis to show up too, if she could make Peregrinus relax a little. He’d been in quite the mood all day.
At long last a slave entered the atrium followed by Wulfric, dressed as finely as yesterday. A handsome young man, Tertius caught himself thinking. Pity he too was born out of wedlock and in a faraway country. But he could not focus on all that. He had to find out what Wulfric wanted, because he still seriously doubted his newfound son came all this way just to meet him.
Wulfric gave him a polite nod when he entered, “Father… I am glad you invite me.” He said in a friendly tone and Tertius glanced around. Thankfully the only other person he could see nearby was Hector. So he stepped a little closer to the younger man, his son.
“Well, I am glad that you chose to attend, Wulfric.” Tertius said, “I would prefer if you did not announce our relationship out loud like that.” He paused, looking at Wulfric, making sure that comment was understood, before he continued, “We are to be joined tonight by my slave Charis, whom you met yesterday, and possibly my other son, Teutus. Now please, come with me. The triclinium is this way.” And together they silently moved through the domus to the dining arena, where cups, wine and plates were already ready for them.
@Sara @Sharpie