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mcd900

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  1. Laniva bristled ever so slightly under Siorel's questioning. "No... I don't have any. Troubles, I mean. Or... well, partners, too I guess. But, um... I'm glad it's not really anything bad. I can see why he's concerned, there's a lot of different things going on right now that none of us really saw coming. I'm sure he'll be back and hugging you soon enough." She blushed at hearing the last part, her tail swaying a little under the chair. "L-Lady killer type...? I-I, um... I don't think so, not really..." Laniva certainly hadn't thought of herself that way; it hadn't exactly crossed her mind, and if she'd had any secret admirers during her time training they'd kept quiet as far as she knew. It wasn't uncomfortable to hear, but as far as compliments went, it was rather unexpected... The egg was starting to get more fork holes than most eggs ever did in their lifetime, as she continued to aimlessly poke at it while thinking. Just as she was searching for a more coherent response, though, a couple figures entered the room; an unfamiliar cleric, who seemed to be focused on speaking with Tio, and Syta. "Oh- hey, Syta!" She waved back, then beckoned her over to the table. Siorel probably wouldn't mind, they'd already met yesterday and all...
  2. "Mmh?" Laniva perked up a little as Siorel sat next to her, giving her a brief blank blink before catching on to what she'd said. "Oh, uh... partner troubles? N-No, it's not like that, I don't really have..." She trailed off with a bit of an ear twitch, setting the fork with egg back down. She sighed, slightly. "Oh, I'm just a bit all over the place... I'm not really sure what to think right now, that's all, it's nothing too serious." It was a little too early to be divulging... anything, really, especially not while still well within earshot of the fox. "I'm sorry to hear about your partner troubles, though..." She blushed a bit at her mention of her self-admitted perving. "Um... I-I'm not gonna ask for details, but... well, I'm sure things'll be okay. He seems like the type who'll listen... I think." Siorel was... rather open, at least for Laniva. Knightly - well, squirely - life and its adjacency to court life had left her used to talk like that being at a minimum mildly scandalous...
  3. Seilan raised an eyebrow, just a bit. "Skilled enough? I'm not certain that even were I skilled enough, I would be able to perceive the difference... after all, I've no idea what it was like before. I couldn't make such a comparison if I wanted to." His smirk turned to a bit of a grimace as Miz and Xety's idle eyes promptly stared at him in return; he hadn't expected Miz to notice, but he'd have to get accustomed to Xety's awareness of her surroundings. He decided to answer Xety's musings first, preferring instead to continue to engage in a more salient conversation than field Miz's... demands. "That's right - Hwein is home to monsters and humans both, though it's much of an outlier in that regard. The other countries are hardly - if at all - mixed, with Vaia and Khach largely consisting of monsters. On the other hand, there's Coteon, a country mostly of humans. The, ah... major political voices within that country would prefer it be entirely so. They happen to be occupying Hwein right now, and like as to not they'll be enforcing their views on the populace here. I saw some of that in the capital before I left..." The grimace turned to a frown, briefly, before he continued. "To answer your question properly though, yes. The number of monsters outweighs that of humans, undoubtedly." He stood from his lean on the wall, turning slightly towards Miz; perhaps disengaging from the subject a little too quickly, though the faux pas had been his own, if at all. His expression shifted; less the frown it had been speaking of Hwein, more one of irritation. "Yes, yes. I had every intent of doing so anyways - you asked much the same at the outskirts of town - so let's first find..." - he stopped, briefly, finally managing to remember for once, far too in the habit of using her real name - "Angelise, and then we can properly be on our way. Keep your expectations for the trade hall... within reason. I don't intend to do much more than send a letter." With that, he stepped outside, catching distant sight of Lucille, accompanied by a newly arrived Nashwa; it seemed she was buying something, though across the street it was difficult to tell what it was, exactly. He stood by the shop's door, a bit of an air of impatience about him. Lucille seemed to have gotten along alright briefly without him, though he was still eager to rejoin her; to say nothing of how he rather miffed he was at the magical duo for separating them in the first place.
  4. "I know. Believe me, I'm well aware of where people are, and aren't, happy to see Clouded... and last I checked, anyone who's not willing doesn't have to go along on the contract. Whatever happens... we'll weather it. And if you decide you want to - or need to - help, then that'll... happen, too." Laniva watched as she flipped through the tome's pages, not understanding quite what was written within the tome, but well aware of what she was (probably) capable of doing with it. "Hmm... we'll be counting on your best, then. Hopefully we won't need it, though..." She sighed. Really, the fox's emotions seemed to be all over the place; it was exhausting to keep up with... wherever she seemed to be going, now. Still, she seemed to be rather friendlier than she was during yesterday's conversation, so she'd take what she could get. Laniva poked at an egg.
  5. Laniva narrowed her eyes, getting all kinds of mixed messages from Mikoto. First she was happy to be smug and preen her fur, and now here she was showing off her magic and her power, only to swerve all the way to the briefest moment of concern. "I'm sure you've managed to pick up quite the amount of magical power in your time, what with your... merchantry. If the Tigers run into anything we can't handle, well... I suppose we don't have any other option than you, so if you feel like stepping in it would probably be appreciated. If that were ever to come to pass, I mean." She stared back, honestly more puzzled than in any way upset at the fox at this point. "...We're mercenaries. We know what we're signing up for... mostly, at least. As long as we keep each other informed..."
  6. Laniva grumbled noncommittally as the fox sat next to her, bright, cloyingly pink, and smug. Her outfit was different, though she wasn't sure whether to attribute it just to simply being her morning attire, or if it was what she was planning to wear for the foreseeable future. "Mm. Morning, Mikoto... yes, I haven't told anyone anything, I'm sure you'll be happy to hear. I don't plan to right now, anyways... it wouldn't exactly make a difference. Syta's off looking for Celine, anyways." She sighed, perhaps ever so slightly more pointedly, taking a bite of her toast. "And if you're coming with us, I'm sure you'll be happy to make sure I continue to... not do that. We'll... 'get along.'" It wasn't the most straightforward of answers, but in truth she wasn't quite sure how genuinely Mikoto had meant it, and she wasn't willing to extend too much friendliness to the fox if she was unsure it was going to be reciprocated. She took another bite of the toast, focusing her gaze on it instead of the ever-so-bright fox next to her.
  7. Another morning had come, and with it Laniva was awake earlier than most in the Tigers for her morning routine. It was a bit different, doing her run in town, and there wasn't enough space to practice with her sword - not without waking anyone up, or damaging the walls - but she went about her run nonetheless. It was good to have time to think to herself anyways; yesterday had carried with it quite a lot since she'd followed Mikoto and Syta out of the room. Fox Finding After she and Syta had left the alley, they'd stayed together for a bit longer before Syta went her own way, saying she needed to get back to looking for Celine, as they hadn't managed to find her. She'd eventually made her way back to her inn room to ponder what she'd heard that day, only to get more of a proper explanation after her morning routine the next. It was certainly rather troublesome, and between the new difficulties (or rather, existing difficulties they'd become newly aware of) and her private knowledge of the fox's magic (who was apparently to join them, now) she found herself poking at her breakfast with markedly less vigor than on a typical day. She needed to come up with something to tell the Chief, on top of everything else; she'd asked to be explained to later as Laniva had left the room yesterday, and Mikoto had gotten rather pushy about not giving anyone the details of what had been going on. Laniva sighed into some toast.
  8. Laniva watched the conversation (calling it that might have been optimistic) continue, tail swaying a bit anxiously as her question hung in the air unanswered. From what she could tell, Alvira was heading somewhere to find her siblings, Syndra had kept quiet far too long about her own family and asked the Chief to hit her (and gotten rejected), and the Evokers had walked out over the news. "O-Oh. Not quite okay, then..." She remained in the doorway, somewhat uncharacteristically meekly, waiting for an answer... at least, until the fox declared her uninvolvement in the situation and waltzed right up to Syta without so much as acknowledging her. She'd been about to hold her tongue - she didn't know the fox much anyways - until she began to question Syta about something she didn't quite follow, her words sweet as salt. "Hey! Mikoto, you don't even know her, lay off... what are you even talking about, anyway?"
  9. Laniva nodded, understanding Syta's situation a bit better now. "Oh, so that's how it is... that makes more sense. I guess we can look for her, maybe take you to see--" The shouting from inside the adjacent room had grown louder, and she winced a little, and as the Evokers made their way out her tail flopped against her chair, somewhat anxiously. "Um... I have no idea what that was about... do you think you could wait here a moment while I check on that? Or, well... I don't know, you can come along if you like, I don't really know..." She sighed. "Those women that just left are our clients..." She stood slowly, making her way over to the doorway after waiting a moment, seeing as nobody else seemed to be wanting to storm out too. Poking her head in the doorway, she saw... Nyx, Syndra, Miria, Alvira, the Chief... somebody she didn't recognize. She gave Alvira a bit of a questioning look, though she wasn't sure if she caught it; the situation in the roomed seemed gloomy at best. "Um... hey, Chief... is everything alright? I just saw our, ahem, clients go by, and..." She trailed off before finishing the though.
  10. "Mm, yeah... it's no big deal, really. And, sure, I can introduce you. I think they're having some kind of meeting right now, so maybe after... I don't really wanna barge in on anything while they're having some serious discussion." She shrugged a little, happy at least from how relieved Syta seemed. As she asked her question, she was looking up at Laniva in a way that seemed almost hopeful, and Laniva pursed her lips slightly, knowing she wouldn't really be able to give much of an answer. "Celine...? I think I've heard the name before, maybe. Some Hecatian knight, I think...? Um, why do you ask? Are you looking for her? 'Cause she's not my boss, if that's what you're wondering..."
  11. "Lufirian magic, huh..." Laniva hummed pensively for a moment, head tilted, then shrugged. "No, Lufirians are fine with me. I mean, we have a whole bunch in our group, even." She hesitated to say more and speak from her own experience in depth, settling instead for a gentle reminder. "Besides, I'm Clouded anyway. It's not like I really have a lot to gain from not liking anybody." She thought briefly about Alvira, and her rather less-than-conventional magic. "I guess that makes sense, about your magic. Every time I meet someone new from Lufiria, I feel like I learn something new about what's possible for magic, so... yeah." She leaned back in her chair with a bit of a sigh, stretching her legs. "I was... a little worried, but I guess it's okay if you know what you're doing." She yawned, slightly. "Exciting first day is right... ugh, what an arena, jeez. They should open a magic school instead..."
  12. Seilan was mildly intrigued by the work Big Bob's other customer was requesting, though he found it not quite his place to pry; and even if he had been so inclined, he was rather occupied with his impromptu charge, who was making something of a fool of herself. He'd seen a similar sight a number of times before, in the family workshop; perhaps been the one grasping the blade, once - when he was distinctly small - but he shook the nostalgia away before too long a moment. Xetketh had stepped in to resolve the situation before he'd returned to the present, so he instead raised his hand to cover his still-forming smirk under the guise of pensiveness, clearing his throat slightly. "Just so you know, most with the gift of magical capability are at the level that you've seen so far, the peculiarities of Lucille's and my magic aside. There are, of course, adepts, those long-studied, well-practiced - and generally more aged - but innate skill as opposed to capability is something I imagine has become much rarer since your time." He was rather glad for Big Bob being occupied in conversation at the moment; anyone overhearing their own discussion would understandably become rather confused quite quickly, and having to explain to even the most understanding of passerby was an effort he was rather uninterested in undertaking.
  13. Laniva had arrived back at the inn the Tigers were staying at early into the hour-long discussion, setting Syta at a table downstairs from the commanders' room. She'd carried Syta the whole way back from the arena even after she'd woken up, assuming she was still recovering; she certainly hadn't heard anything in the way of protest from Syta, so that had lent some credence to her theory. Putting Syta's (numerous) belongings to the side of their table, Laniva slumped into a seat, rather exhausted from the gauntlet of mages, then leaned forwards to speak. "So... what was all that back in the arena? People's hair doesn't usually just... change colors like that. And you started fighting differently, too. I may not be any good with magic, but that doesn't mean I don't know what's usually possible. That... definitely wasn't. And you didn't wake up when the healers got to you, too." She crossed her arms, tilting her head a bit inquisitively. That kind of magic... well, even if it makes her stronger, the effects are a bit strange. And to use that in the arena, of all places... either she takes the arena very seriously, or she must be pretty sure that it's not that dangerous to herself...
  14. Laniva grumbled a bit more at Syta's petting and mumbling; her enthusiasm was a bit innocently cute, but given the situation and her fellow Tigers being around, she couldn't help but huff a little. "The arena was... eh, it was alright, I guess. A lot of mages, so not much to enjoy there for me. Still, I'm sure you could get through a decent number of fights - probably worth the gold, if you don't mind getting knocked around by some rough light magic at the end. Good luck if you do decide to try." She shrugged - or tried to, at least; the weight of Syta and all her equipment was rather prohibitive. She looked back a bit, towards Syta. "Oh... you woke up faster than I thought you would. Syta, that's Cin," - she pointed a bit, with her chin - "and that's Siorel. We're all here together - there's a few more of us, too." She couldn't quite see Syta's face like this, but from the sound of her voice she seemed rather embarrassed by Siorel's words. "Mm... well, let's get you back to the inn to sit down for a bit, then. Are you feeling up to walk, or should I keep carrying you?" She hefted Syta a bit; it was no problem to carry her, but there was no harm in shifting her a bit more comfortably now that she was awake...
  15. Seilan entered the store, not far behind Miz; there was an assortment of weaponry around, and he knew enough to know that it was a decent selection. Better than any of the stalls outside, without question; it was honestly rather impressive that some of the equipment was available despite the country's ostensible state of occupation. There was... also an elf here, a familiar one; Ilvira, if he recalled correctly, though in truth the two hadn't spoken before. He cleared his throat, rather awkwardly, as Big Bob made his comments. It was plain enough that Miz was rather miffed at his words, and it seemed a suitable enough approach to not further provoke her. Misbehavior would be troublesome, after all, even with her assumedly diminished capacity for... well, all manner of things. "I... yes. We're, ah... acquainted, and I'm... accompanying her. I'm not much for this type of weaponry, myself, so I'll just be around. That's alright, I hope?" Interestingly enough, Miz had refrained from further (outward) fear of the orc; he supposed he could consider himself lucky in that regard. He crossed his arms, moving out of the doorway and leaning on the wall near the door. Undoubtedly Xetketh wouldn't be far behind Miz, and he didn't intend to be in the way.
  16. Laniva hadn't made it much further than the front gate of the arena when she ran into a couple of the Tigers; Cin and Siorel, one of whom was rather wrapped around the other. "Oh, hey. That's me, yeah... um, this is Syta. We met earlier today... we went through the arena, but she did something magic, and then passed out, so I was going to see if anyone who knew about magic knew what was going on..." Somewhere in the middle of her talking, Syta seemed to have woken up, and was... petting her, again. "Ah, h-hey, wha... Syta, come on, jeez..." She grumbled a little, sighing; but mostly she was just glad Syta seemed to be fine. At least, she definitely seemed to be, given this was how she was waking up...
  17. Xetketh seemed to rather lack the fear that Miz had, apparently instead settling for expressing her interest in the orc and orcs in general; and also not-unnoticeably glaring at him with several of the eyes that surrounded her. It was difficult to evaluate the significance of that, not least because he wasn't sure how much of it was conscious on her part. "Ah... yes. Orcs are commonplace, in this time. I can't exactly speak as to what might be new to you, seeing as I don't rightly know the extent of what was present in your time, but if there were only the two you speak of, then yes. You'll find quite a number." As Miz (slowly) made her way about a step or two in front of him, he looked back towards Lucille; he was rather loathe to leave her alone, given how they had meant to come to the shopping district together, but he couldn't shake the feeling that there was some manner of social impropriety waiting just minutes away within Big Bob's store if he went to go join her at the stalls now. She seemed to be rather intently focused on her discussion with the merchants, so hopefully she'd managed to find the tights she was looking for. He looked back towards the weapon store, a slight grimace on his face, and resolved to try to be quick about things in the store, at the very least. "...Do you intend to enter the store, or... not?"
  18. As the healers brought Syta into the lobby, out from the arena battlegrounds, Laniva furrowed her brows slightly. She didn't seem to be back to consciousness quite yet, and given that this was possibly some kind of magical effect, Laniva didn't have the slightest idea as to when she might wake up again. She accepted the bag of gold from Luia, bowing her head gently in thanks. "Thanks. Mercenaries probably have this kind of effect on arenas when they pass through town, yeah." Good luck, Nyx... it's a tough one in there for sure. The exchange of gold settled, leaving just the matter of Syta. The healers had definitely done a good job with her injuries from the fights, but she was rather stumped as to where to go from here. Maybe if I bring her back, Renais can take a look at her? The ones in the arena probably only do cuts, bruises, and scrapes... and if Renais doesn't know, it's not like there's a shortage of mages who know loads more about magic than I probably ever will. I guess I'll take her back to the others... She knelt down next to Syta, trying to figure out how to carry her... and all of her myriad weapons. She's always carrying all this stuff around? Everywhere? Huh... Eventually, though, she managed to heft Syta onto her back, with a bundle of weapons under an arm. Alright, let's see... where were we staying...
  19. Laniva moved up to the stands to watch Syta's run in the arena, gladly taking the opportunity to sit and rest for a bit. She was distinctly less excitable in the stands than Syta had been for her - it wasn't exactly in her nature to be cheering like that - though she was focused quite intently on Syta's fights. She'd entered the arena with dark magic, from the looks of it. It was somehow more apparent how much Syta usually carried now that she was free of most of it, though she seemed to not really be missing it, at least for the first couple fights. Hmm. She's actually pretty good... what was she so worried about? Maybe she's just not really into this sort of thing. She clapped from the stands as she won the first four fights rather handily - it was looking like Syta was going to do at least as well as Laniva had. Once she came up against the archer, though, something seemed to come over Syta, and visually quite noticeably - her hair changed color, her stance seemed to change. Is she... she looks like she's really enjoying this all of a sudden... The fight went by pretty quickly after her... shift, she supposed it could be called. The next fight, though, against the light mage that had defeated her, was over in a flash - quite literally, at that, given how powerful the light magic seemed. She winced as Syta went down, getting up from her seat to rush down to the ready room as the healers worked their magic. It seemed like Syta was still unconscious, which was a little odd - these were supposed to be practice fights, after all... She looks, uh... back to normal, though, at least...?
  20. Laniva grumbled a little as she got to her feet, Syta already at her side before she even knew where she'd come from... and, noticeably enough, also reaching for her ears already, though this time she seemed to have held back for some reason or another. "I'm okay, Syta, just fine. The healers know what they're doing, don't worry... haahh. So many mages... that really wasn't what I was hoping for." She shrugged, dusting the detritus from her brief dirt nap off, giving Syta a bit of a smile. "Your turn, yep. Maybe you'll have a better go of it than I will. I'm sure, uh... one of your weapons can probably get you pretty far. I don't really know much about magic, though... probably can't really give any advice. But I'm sure you'll do just fine." She stretched a little; the healing only did so much for the soreness. "And, um... if you want to, you can ask. I'm not making any promises, though... but, um, you really look like you want to. So, you can ask... I mean, I might still say no, but... yeah." She trailed off, a little awkwardly; in truth she wasn't really sure why she was humoring her at all, but she seemed so enthused (and dejected, pulling herself back...) that it was hard to say no outright.
  21. Laniva nodded appreciatively in response to the well wishes from the other Tigers, giving a bit of an inquisitive head tilt towards the rather cheery woman who had just made quite the run in the arena. "Ah... thanks, I'll do my best. Good luck with... uh, that." The first two fights were hardly anything of note, save the fact that they were mages. Annoying as dealing with magic was for her, they were only able to last so long in a one-on-one fight, and soon enough they were knocked to the ground, held at bladepoint just long enough to signify her victory. The third was much the same - dark magic this time, instead of anima; hardly made a difference as far as her not liking it went. These first fights weren't too challenging, and she was able to have enough of a relaxed focus to notice Syta cheering her on, giving a bit of a wave at the end of the fights. The fourth was a human axefighter, and she found herself smiling somewhat going into the fight. It would be the first in this arena that was a fight, and not chasing around a mage with a sword while they casted away. Just as she'd expected, it did prove to be an honest fight. They exchanged blow for blow, and she found the wind briefly knocked out of her at a heavy impact from the poleaxe, her armor not quite stopping the full force of the blow - then, pivoting hard, half-swording, jabbed hard with the (dulled) point, forcing him down. Hmm. That felt more... natural. Didn't have to think every bit of it through... The fifth - the archer - landed a solid shot on her, and as she charged she grumbled internally about the state of her armor from what was ostensibly a practice fight. She delivered a swift counterattack, hoping to prevent any further damage on her armor, and that seemed to do the trick quite well. The light mage would prove to be Laniva's downfall in the arena, managing to outlast her - the mage was frustratingly quick, and she was simply not suited to deal with a spellcaster in ways other than beating them before they beat her. The spell knocked her out cold, briefly; the healers worked their magic soon enough, and she was on her feet in no time, fast enough to whinge about the amount of mages in this arena to nobody in particular, seeing as the only person who might have been interested in listening was up in the stands. Oof. Well, my turn to be the spectator, I guess.
  22. Laniva was about to head in, set for the fights, until Syta stopped her. "...Huh? Oh. Yeah, I guess we should let them go first... Let's go up to the stands. It might be good to see how the arena combatants fight. Though that's not really going to change how I go in there..." She shrugged. She stood there a little sheepishly as Syta waved to the two in line, giving them a bit of a nod. "Let's go up to the stands. If you don't want to try the arena right now, you can wait there for me after they've gone."
  23. "Cerezia's View, huh.... okay, that sounds nice, I guess." Laniva made a bit of a face at Syta as she made her seafood remark. "I'm not just a cat on two legs, Syta... jeez. Do street cats even like lobster...?" She sighed, letting herself be led towards the city's arena. It wasn't long before they reached it; Syta knew her way around, and made her way through the city rather excitedly. "Well, I was going to challenge the arena either way... I mean, there's nothing to lose for trying, right? I'm not going to make you do it if you don't want to, though. If you want to watch, or just wait out here, or whatever, that's just fine too." She rolled her shoulders, loosening up a little, mentally preparing for the fights. "Whew... okay, wish me luck, I guess."
  24. "S-Sure, let's go..." She was... bubbly. In an endearing sort of way. If Syta had been the one deciding, they'd probably have long been running off somewhere already; but here she still was, hesitating in the face of... well, Syta's face. "Y-Yeah. Let's do that... the arena first, I mean. Um, you lead..." It was a little embarrassing; there was the abstract feeling that she was getting along better with Syta perhaps slightly more than any of the rest of the Tigers to date - though, it was still up in the air whether this friendliness was just for her, or for everyone, or actually even if Laniva felt like reciprocating it anytime soon instead of awkwardly mumbling as she was. "We can do the shopping and get something to eat afterwards, um... is there a place in town here that you like?"
  25. It was... comfortable, the bustling of the street, the occasional stallowner's yell advertising their product, everything. He could imagine the clanging of a hammer and anvil, the heat of the forge - he could almost have put aside in his mind the rather uninvited guests tagging along, if not for Miz's sudden decision to dash behind him. He looked over towards Lucille, apparently focused on the fashion stall's offerings, and where he'd probably be, if not for the... circumstances. There was a sense of mild exasperation that Miz was hiding behind him, this time... "What is... what?" He glanced, somewhat quizzically, into the armory, not having seen the object of Miz's apparent fear. It sure is an armory... last I remember, she wasn't afraid of weaponry... what, the orc...? "That's... Bob. Big Bob. I think. What, have you never seen an orc before...? Even if you haven't, I thought you'd be rather more tolerant when it comes to monsters. You're lucky we're not already inside, or Bob would probably be offended." Especially seeing as far as monsters are concerned, you two are... er, unusual. "Are you going to be alright if we go in there? I don't think there's much chance to find anything besides more mundane magic anywhere else in this town, so if that's what you're interested in, then we have to head inside." He paused, a bit surprised at how panicky and discomposed her reaction had been. "...Why are you hiding behind me, anyway?"
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