Shin

EDIT: Thanks SF

Gentle Giant Thwomp looked down at Cass, rather puzzled by her question. His features weren't exactly aesthetically pleasing, rough and lacking any sort of delicacy, but there was no real malice behind his frightening exterior. It wasn't as if he didn't understand her question, but more that he didn't understand the concept behind it. "Thwomp not very good with people, he think they should not hurt other people for being different." he replied, subtle hints of sympathy filtering through his words. "Thwomp thinks people should be happy, not right to hurt just because you afraid." Content that she'd assigned an appropriate guard, Ethel had already reached the prison door. "I'm sure he'll look after you well, I'd certainly feel safe with him around." she mused, leaving through the door. "Just make sure that you don't have any regrets, Owen." Turning to Owen, Thwomp took a few moments to either recognise the prince or try and form a coherent response to him. "It's OK, Prince Owen. Thwomp likes helping people... not good with words, but big and strong, nobody cause trouble when Thwomp is around!" - After reclaiming their possesions, Cass' group had reached the second store, Sylvester's. Whilst not quite as overtly chique as Lidoine's, they could at least expect service without the same discrimination they'd had before. With Thwomp along with them, none of the passersby dared draw attention to themselves, shrinking away from the group to avoid the mighty giant. The entrance appeared smaller than the previous store, but there was a smartly dressed young man at the door, well groomed and tidy. "Oh? Welcome to Sylvester's, where style and taste can be found for anyone, no matter your creed or class." he greeted, bowing his head. "How may we be of service today?" Promises Emily nodded firmly, giving Constance a salute. "It's OK, Miss Constance. Nobody will know about your secret relationship." she replied, somehow still adamant that there was a hidden romance between Alain and Constance. "If anybody asks, I'll say that he was... uh, clipping his toes! That way you can talk about whatever you want without being disturbed!"

Tarquin's hopes of not sharing the lift with Elaine had been quickly destroyed. Quickly stepping out of Elaine's way, he caught hints of what she'd gotten so worked up about. Had there been some sort of information broadcast that he'd been unaware of? His connection to the outside world was poor at best, he never thought to seek out information about it, merely process anything that he was told and felt was worth remembering. The only large terrorist group he was aware of was Apotheosis, and even then he didn't know much aboutt them. He avoided making eye contact with her, not saying anything at all as the lift closed and began its ascent. Elaine's face was perculiar, he couldn't quite place how she was feeling. It was somewhere between angry, which appeared to be her natural state, and constipation? It was rather difficult for him to fully comprehend it. He'd never really cared about other peoples' feelings, they hadn't been relevant to him until fairly recently. Only thirty or so seconds had passed since she'd intruded the lift, but the atmosphere was such that it had felt like hours. He needed to break the silence, if only to give her something to do other than punch him. The problem was wording something in a way she wouldn't take an insult - and he couldn't think of any way to compliment her at all. "It's unusual for the XO to call an emergency meeting." Tarquin said at last, unable to think of anything better to say. "Hopefully she will be able to elaborate on such an atypical summoning."

Choke the Point Ethel laughed, looking over at Owen. "It's good to think about your decisions, Owen... but sometimes you need to be decisive. Otherwise, people will think that they can change your mind on anything." she replied, looking over at Sebastian. "I do wonder who I could send... you're clearly busy here but I think I know the man for the job. With someone like him around, nobody would dare give you trouble. You, the one guarding the cells. Go fetch Captain Thwomp, tell him that Queen Ethel has specifically requested him to come and escort Princess Cassandra." Giving a dutiful bow, Sebastian prepared to leave the prison. "Of course, your majesty. I shall be as prompt as I can." he replied, quickly walking out of the room. It wasn't long before the door opened again, a familiar hulking figure appearing in front of Owen's eyes again. Nearly seven feet tall and large enough to have to duck through the door, Thwomp had arrived. Dropping down onto one knee, Thwomp bowed in front of Ethel, the impact echoing across the hall. "Your Majesty, Thwomp came as soon as possible... and understands assigned task. Thwomp would be honoured to follow." he announced, amusing his liege with his dedication. Ushering him up, Ethel smiled, gesturing over to Cass and Adele, looking over at their confiscated weaponry on a bench nearby. "That should suffice. I hope you have fun shopping, Cassandra." Ethel added, visibly pleased with how the situation had been resolved. "Maybe you'll do better the second time around? It would be ever so tedious to visit you here again." No Clue "Yeah, Morganna! She was with us pretty recently, but then she dumped Alain to run away with Emmet." she replied, still stuck in her own surreal fantasy world. Emily looked rather lost, perhaps oblivious of the seriousness of her revival. "I was helping everyone fight some bandits when we left Magon, but then there was an argument and I got knocked out by a spear." Emily continued, recalling her account of the disaster. "I had a few funny dreams, but then I woke up here. I think my memory was OK before the accident... but I'm not sure, I haven't ever been good at remembering things." Iron Heart Marrok listened astutely to Serge's woes, not making a single sound throughout the entire account. "Just because you get used to it doesn't stop it from being tough, Serge." Marrok replied, looking rather genuine in his sympathy. "If you carry all of that inside you all the time, it will drive you insane. Everyone has their own worries and woes, that's why we make friends with the people around us to help each other deal them them. If there are people around you that you care about, you need to keep them safe, but you need to remember that they can feel just like you." Standing up, Marrok stretched his arms, letting out a tensed yawn. "Thinking with all these complicated things makes me want to run around or go climb a tree." he added, stepping towards the door. "You should go find your people, I'm sure they're wondering where you are."

Gungir. Aesthetically it's pretty cool but also glory to Thracia.

I don't know about you losers, but Bioshock sounds like a blast.

Naked Snake The armour took the money from Freya, briefly counting the coins to confirm her payment. "That should be fine, just pop back in a few days and I should be done by then." he replied, lifting the armour carefully. "Haven't had a chance to deal with something like this for a while, but I've got a feeling that it'll turn out pretty good." The armourer slowly walked through a door behind the counter, supposedly to his work area to start the task. Freya spends 1200G to adjust her stats! Spreadsheet has been updated!

Mad House Ethel smiled, pleased with the judgement Owen had verbalised. "It sounds like this guard was a bit too vocal with his work. I wouldn't want people to think that your sister was a criminal deserving of arrest. There are a couple of people inside the asylum who could do with some extra security. A senior guard should make things much safer." she replied, pointing over at Sebastian. "You there, guard. Please escort our guests to somewhere more comfortable, the prison is hardly a place for the royalty of our beloved neighbour, Wyke." Sebastian obeyed, moving over to unlock Adele's cell, shortly followed by Cass' own. The empty clunks from the locks signalled their freedom. "I'm sure our guard can also take a break to come and apologise, it would be poor form to be punished without learning his lesson." she added, watching as the cell doors opened. "People won't try and misbehave if they know they can't get away with it. It's quite fun being in charge, despite all the work, it lets you make things happen your way. Now, we should really sort this mess out. There would be far less nonsense if you went to speak to my own personal designer... or even try Sylvester's, it all depends on if you're willing to try going out again. " Fistory Marrok barely flinched as Serge's fist connected with him, his solid body providing more than enough of a shield against the attack. However, there had still been a satisfying thump. Marrok laughed again, rather pleased with Serge's attempt. "Not bad at all, I could feel that one! Plenty of space to improve, my boy! Maybe soon you'll be able to punch twice without breaking a hand!" he replied, crossing his arms. "Sometimes you just need to let all that steam loose! Nothing like a good slug at something to get back on track!" Giving Serge a moment to recover, Marrok sat down next to the young man. "It ain't easy being a hero, you look like you know that already." he said solemnly, his voice far less loud than before. "All of us here have lost people we care about, and we're probably going to risk our own lives too. Everyone dies in the end, but if you try hard, you have a lot more say in when and how." Dark Connection Emily's eyes darted between the two mages, not quite following the conversation at its deeper levels. However, even she couldn't remain oblivious to the mention of Malaphar. "Miss Constance, do you know Malaphar? He's really scary, I didn't understand his magic at all and it gave me a really bad feeling when he used it." she added in, looking at Alain. "It made my knees shake, like it will just get worse and worse. Morganna asked me lots of questions about him, but I didn't know any answers." She laughed, looking down at the bed. "I can't remember any of the questions she asked though, all I know is that she wanted to know as much as she could about him." she added. "Recently it feels like my memory is just falling apart, there are things that I just can't put into words.

There's an interview in the FE12 section that might be the one in question. If it's the one you were thinking of, it's not exactly recent, nor was it too difficult to find!

Royal Timing Thankfully, the wait wasn't too long for Cass and her friends. After perhaps fifteen minutes, the dungeon door opened, Queen Ethel striding confidently past the other convicts - none of which dared speak out against her. Stopping at Adele and Cass' cells, she looked perhaps a little surprised and maybe even somewhat amused. Peering into Cass' cell, she looked at the sulking princess. "I wasn't quite expecting for you to visit me this way, Cassandra. It seems that there was a degree of miscommunication, I hadn't expected you to run into trouble before I had a chance to relay orders to the guards." she explained, glancing over at Adele in her cell. "I see the guards were at least gentle... but such a sour mood suggests to me that the situation wasn't too pleasant. I hope you didn't see too many pitchforks, it might take a little while to sweettalk the public." Ethel put her finger to her chin, pondering what to do. "I should probably force them to release you both and apologise for it... I did feel like firing a few people, maybe I could that too, or may toilet duty." she sniggered, visibly pleased by the prospect of making her guards pay. "Prince Owen, what do you think? You'll have to be correcting mistakes one day, I'd be interested in how you'd do it." Rising Challenger Marrok gave a hearty laugh, patting Serge firmly on the back again. "See, even your name is telling you to stand proud!" he bellowed. "Everyone starts small and makes more mistakes than a fish trying to walk! Nobody goes around tooting their own horn either! It's the little things that matter, makes us stronger, makes you a real man! The only direction I walk is forwards. There's stuff behind me, but if I never moved on I'd be stuck in a ditch with nothing but a pair of socks and a greasy spoon!" Looking down at Serge, Marrok smiled. "Punch me in the gut, go on, I'll take my armour off and let you have a slug at me." he requested, already reaching around to undo his own straps. "Sometimes a good knock to get the salt out is all you need!" Dark Elephant Emily played along with Constance's curiosity, seeing it as not much more than a game. Whilst her skin was cool to touch, an unsettling emptiness resounded within the hermit. It had been a good number of years since such a feeling had plagued her... and there was an unnerving resemblance to him. Malaphar. There were echoes of the missing humanity that had surrounded him in Emily, although her childlike demeanour was a stark contrast. "My name's Emily Edion, Miss Consto-... Constipa-... Constance! Is it a secret relationship? Is that why you have to be discreet and use your tongues? I won't tell anyone, I promise!" Emily replied, completely oblivious to the fact she was surrounded by followers of Belial. "You remind me of my grandma, Miss Constance. You smell just like her, like flowers mixed with onions."

Maybe Coffee? "I understand, Lady Adeltrudis, perhaps another time. From what I've gathered, no orders to capture yourself or Princess Cassandra had been relayed among the guards. It appears that they were responding to a local disturbance only." he replied, maintaining his position. "Master Jeeves once said that mindless fear is greater than mindful fear. People are more afraid of which that they do not understand. I had always assumed that it meant fear within oneself, rather than fear of oneself. I am certain you shall all find words to resolve this situation, I fear I would have to find... alternative employment should I have to intervene."

Jailhouse Blues The guards quickly relieved Adele and Cass of their weapons, giving them a chance to offer them before making any decisions to take them by force. The guard captain listened to Owen, thinking briefly as to how to respond to the prince. "It is perhaps unorthodox, but I shall allow this." he replied, his men leading Cass and Adele, along with Owen in tow. - Cass and Adele had been placed in two seperate cells, facing each other on opposite sides of the corridor. Most of the others were empty, it was likely that it had been a quiet morning. The other inmates appeared to be petty thieves, none of them causing much of a fuss within their cells. Owen had been allowed into the prison under the lead guard's orders. The quartet had stationed themselves in the prison, but the appearance of a fifth soon changed things. "Order from upstairs is for me to take over guard duty, you're all to return to patrols. Her Majesty is enroute and does not wish to be have, in her own words, so many loiterers." he relayed, giving a salute. The guards themselves appeared somewhat confused by the order, but their leader raised his hand. "If her Majesty has ordered it, so it shall be. Thank you, soldier." he replied, looking at the guard curiously. He appeared to mutter something about not recognising the guard under his breath as he left, but it wasn't long before they had all left, leaving them with a single guard in the prison. The guard took his place next to Adele's cell, standing up straight. "Shall I rearrange your afternoon tea, Lady Adeltrudis?" he asked casually, not turning to face Adele. "Queen Ethel is on her way, it just required some facilitation." Iron Giant The man laughed, patting Serge on the back firmly. "My name's Marrok, my little chum. Don't go about calling me sir, not like I'm the Pope's piano teacher or anything!" he boomed, putting his hands on his hips. The people around them were doing their best to avoid looking at the pair, Marrok certainly brought an aura with him. "What can I call you, my little aspiring hero? Do you have a name that strikes awe into all your foes? Something heroic, like Galavant, or Tordel... or Serge! Yes, names like those are very heroic!"

Tarquin had expected a smooth ascent upwards, but the elevator had decided to pause. Not only that, it appeared to be going down? Had he pressed the wrong button? After a gentle descent, he at least had the solace that it couldn't go down any further. The elevator stopped,opening up to let someone else in. It was perhaps a tad bothersome, but it would be for a half a minute at best. However, his acceptance of it soon faded as the door opened to reveal Elaine to him. Other than perhaps Melissa or the strange chicken mascot, there was nobody else he'd actively want to not share a journey with. If he were lucky, she'd just stand there menacingly for a minute or so. If he were unlucky, well, his only regret that he could not use the Andromeda Protocol in such delicate quarters. Looking at Elaine cautiously, he took his time choosing his words. "It's going up, to the meeting." he said quietly, hoping she would simply accept his answer - or decide to take the stairs if there were any.

Do not collect The lead guard didn't take kindly to Cass' protests, but he at least listened them for the meantime. "Raewald's law is absolute. Without rules and order, we would be no better than the barbarians to the south. I do not question the law, I enforce it to provide safety for the people I protect. If the Queen above is to contest the law, it is my duty to accept her verdict, but until that moment, I will follow that which King Edwin had declared before her. You may not feel that our laws are fair, but nor do those who steal or murder. Your acts are a crime, and will not be treated as anything less than that." The other guards started to approach with the restraints, but their leader held his arm out. "That won't be necessary. If she is true to her word, she shall not attempt escape." he ordered, the others backing off rather quickly. "However, if I am proved wrong, the results for them will be less than pleasant. Come, you are to follow us to be processed." Instead, his men took formation around Cass and Adele. It could have been a trick of their eyes, but there was a glimmer of a blade, barely visible from one of the alleys, disappearing after a second or two - likely Sebastian keeping an eye on the situation.

'Ello 'Ello Owen and his group didn't have a chance to get very far, a quartet of city guards had rapidly decended on them. Clad in slate gray armour and holding their spears upright, they at least weren't threatening them with their weapons. One of the four stepped forward, pointing directly at Cass and Adele. He was a young man, not that much older than Owen himself, but he carried himself with an air of experience and confidence. "By the laws of Tytila, you are to halt and surrender yourselves." he declared, his voice silencing the crowd around them. "You have been charged with public indecency and disturbing the peace. You are to comply without resistance, you shall not be harmed if you come along peacefully." He gestured for his other guards to approach, readying restraints in their hands. The crowd started to applaud, clearly content with the incoming detainment of Cass and Adele. However, the lead guard glared at the crowd, banging the end of his spear on the ground and silencing them. "There shall be none of that. Justice is being served, this is not a sport to be watched for entertainment. Disperse unless you wish to join these two in the dungeons for civil unrest. This goes for you too, Prince Owen. Your connections matter not, the law does not bend its knee for those of status." Cass and Adele can choose to comply... or not! Reluctant Warning Morganna looked conflicted, as if she wanted to say something but then chose against it. "Claire, you're smart enough, you shouldn't get involved in this either." she replied, clutching her palms together. "I shouldn't be telling you this but I've let the college know about him, just let them handle it. His magic's way out of our league, imagine what would have happened if he wasn't injured? Your breakfast loving baron barely made it out alive, he's lucky he wasn't torn in half. Unless you have some genius plan, you can't beat him with brute force." There was a hesitance in her body language, as if she were torn between talking to Claire and leaving. "I don't know how quickly he'll start doing things, but I hope I won't see him again in my lifetime." she added. "It sounds like he's been around for a while, hopefully he isn't in a hurry... but why would he appear now?" Belial Buddies Emily paused, looking at Alain curiously. "Belial? That name sounds familiar." she replied, tapping her chin as she thought. "He's not my Uncle's pet cat... I think that was Berry... or Bongo. Wait, isn't he like Engel's archenemy? You know, kinda like Prince Owen and his brother who tried to steal his pants? Uncle Morgan's not very interested in going to church, he says that it's better just to think about the people around you." The entrance of Constance broke her attention, the elderly woman's confident aura visibly impressing the young woman. "Morganna? Is that you? I guess living with Emmet and his Pinnochio is even tougher than I expected!" she gasped, pausing for a few seconds. "Wait, you're not Morganna... Alain, is this your new girlfriend? It's a little fast, but I hope it works better than with Morganna!" Steve and Goliath A large armoured man had noticed Serge's plight, a towering giant with more muscle in one arm than in all of Serge's body. Looking down at Serge through his walrus-like mustache, he patted Serge on the shoulder, nearly dislocating his shoulder in the process. "Why so glum, my little friend? Lost the fire within you?" he chortled, his voice vibrating through his armour. "A lad like you should be out on adventures, striving to be a hero! You're old enough to be my son, let me give you some fatherly words! Don't worry about what you don't have or have lost, focus on what you still have and what you can achieve! A true hero makes the best of any situation!"

I've done a chumps run in HM, using the less than stellar members of the cast. You can survive without Rutger, but it's by no means easy.

In Normal Mode, the game's pretty manageable. Your cavaliers generally get up to scratch fairly quickly and Marcus can do the hard work. In Hard Mode, a lot of your units aren't particularly effective during the early game or are even detrimental in the case of Roy, Wolt and perhaps the axe dudes. Rutger really helps with the ultra dodgy axe bosses early on as well as Leygance and Henning. Beyond that, he's less clutch but Rutger and the paladins, along with Dieck to some extent, pretty much carry the early game.

One Moment The attendant paused as Cass declined to follow, trying to figure out her difficult customer. Just about maintaining a pleasant facade, she looked behind Cass and the crowd around her. "Of course... one of my colleagues can fetch them. It's a little unorthodox but..." she began, only to be interrupted by the crowd. One particularly disgruntled woman had hurled a rather soft tomato at Cass, the fruit bursting open against her back. Her act had caused the crowd to gain a new energy, finally choosing to rise against the supposedly indecent relationship before them. "Don't go around spreading your heresy in front of all our children. Have some decency, you animal." she cried out, the others around her nodding in agreement. "I don't know what kind of circus that your country is, but in Raewald people like you earn their place in a cell... maybe even the chopping block on a good day." A particularly musclar man stepped forward, glaring at Cass. "Don't care that your country's being stepped on by Deira or if you're royalty. If you come running all the way here, at least have the decency to follow the law." he shouted, the rest of the crowd letting out disgusted cries. The attendant looked rather lost, cowering as the crowd grew more unruly. No More Heroes Morganna looked terrified, even discussing Malaphar's magic was enough for her to shake. "If his magic is anything like illusions... he's decades ahead of me. I didn't want to accept it, accept that someone so much more knowledgeable than me existed." she replied, backing herself against the wall. She'd even dropped her book in her panic, the mage bending down hurriedly to pick it back up. Clutching it tightly against her chest, she looked at Claire with worried eyes. "Claire, it could be anyone, but that's anyone who opposes him. If I stay out of his way, it won't be me who dies." she added. "A nutjob like Scuttle can be reasoned with, but Malaphar's something else entirely. I can't outsmart Malaphar, he'll always be stronger than me... I never should have left Wyke. If you want to die for someone else's mistakes, be my guest, but I'm not letting Serge get me killed." Light Load The armourer was a lot busier than it had been the previous day, but thankfully Freya's armoured frame was enough to create a path for her. The armourer smiled, crossing his arms and watching Freya gradually remove her armour. "It shouldn't be more than a couple of days before it's all patched up." he replied, already inspecting the cuirass. "How much do you want me to lighten the load? There's a couple of places that can be freed up, but yer start to lose some protection after a point."

Strange Sale The attendant took a few moments to put two and two together, Cass had filled in the details she needed. In fact, the pair had drawn the attention of the other patrons. The attendant looked around the room, another member of staff catching her eye and leaving the store quickly. "Ah, yes." she replied, looking back at the pair cautiously. "If you'd like to come around to meet our lead designer, she might be able to help you more with such an... unusual request." There were mutterings in the gathering crowd, eyes and fingers were focused on Cass and Adele. Nobody dared confront them directly. or even speak to them directly, but the atmosphere around them was quickly turning rather sour. Women were shielding their children's eyes from the duo, looking at them with contempt. Hushed phrases such as "indecent tramps" and "sinful wretches" very much indicated how the crowd felt about their open display. The attendant didn't seem quite sure of how to handle the situation, but she at least made a feeble attempt at conversation. "Yes... both of you, the designer... wouldn't want to keep them waiting." she added nervously, trying to prompt the pair to follow her and get them out of sight of their clientele. "They shouldn't be too busy, I'm sure they'll be... interested to hear your request."

Fallen Ally Vesta gave up her search for Octon rather quickly, perhaps deciding to search for him later. "It's fine, a day or two's more than enough. I'll have to say goodbye to my boyfriend too, but he's always away with the army... so it's no big deal." she replied, standing herself up and taking the pouch of coins. "I'll probably need a day to fix the ballista, but I'll be able to replace everything I need to. Two thousand was a lot to ask for, but you won't regret it. Now... maybe I can find Abdul, he said he knew a guy who could sort me out... I'll catch you later, boss man." Heading into the room's crowd, Vesta left Serge to his own devices. There were still a vast array of fighters looking for work, but whether he were to hire any more was his own decision to make. Steve, the fighter he'd beaten the previous day, was slumped in a corner by himself, idly looking at his sword. Departure Morganna looked up from her book, her expression showing a subdued horror. Looking at Claire, as well as Cass, she took a good few seconds to muster a reply. "I... don't know what you're talking about." she replied, visibly shaken by Claire's accusation. "We barely even spoke, I answered all the questions you asked me... what else do you want? I don't want to be involved in your group's crazy adventures. It's too dangerous, being enemies with Deira, being enemies with Malaphar. Did you see what happened to Emily? I'm not going to stick around until Serge gets me killed." Cass' entry seemed to dampen down the tension somewhat, but Morganna looked ready to run. "The academy didn't prepare me for this... my grades were perfect, but there's no book out there that can do that." she added, looking Cass in the eyes, the fear in her own very present. "Princess, I apologise but I don't want to be involved in your group any further. At this rate, somebody else is going to get killed and I'm making sure it's not me." Ambitions Emily's eyes lit up at the mention of going for a walk, like a child who'd been offered a visit to the park. "Uncle Morgan's looked after me for as long as I can remember." Emily replied, paying full attention to Alain. "Ever since, well, ever since... it started... when..." Emily trailed off into an unintelligble mumbling, the mage looking rather perplexed. Her mind jumped to Alain's next question, leaving behind her unfinished train of thought. "I could never do that. To be that important you have to be really clever and sensible. I didn't do very well at the Academy, I got kicked out after my first year. I got almost every single question wrong in my exams, no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't get it right." she sighed, looking uncharacteristically despondent. "Uncle Morgan taught me a few things after I dropped out... somehow it made more sense when he said it. I still don't understand what all the words he said meant, but it worked when I copied him." Emily scratched the back of her left hand, looking up at Alain. "Something hasn't felt right since I woke up, Alain." she added, putting her hands on her lap. "I don't know what it is... but I feel like something bad's going to happen to everyone really soon." Suit Yourself The inside of the store was just as busy as its front had suggested, but Adele had managed to slip in at just the right moment - the attendant was free for a moment. A young woman, not much older than Adele herself and stylishly dressed, she seemed somewhat puzzled by Adele's request. "That's not a problem! We deal with both men's and women's clothing. Weddings are an event where style cannot be ignored!" she replied, looking around Adele for a man to be wearing it. "We have a wide array of styles that our craftsmen are experts at making... but we'd need to meet the man it's for. Is he not with you? If you know his measurements, we can work with those, but it's much better to have him measured in person."

EDIT: SF is literal BUTTS.

I feel like a lot of authors don't appreciate that the audience don't see their OC in the same light as they do. A self insert designed to fulfil desires like being popular, powerful or banging the author's favourite character doesn't appeal to the audience as much as the author - they don't get the same wish fulfilment the author does. What makes it worse is when the author sees any criticism of the character as a criticism of themselves, especially when there's a lot of similarities.

Whilst the above is effective, it does rely on having a massively magic blessed Dew (+5 on his average), as well as being ahead in other stats. Dew in the forest, along with the elite and pursuit rings, is able to avoid them pretty reliably whilst drawing them away. For some strange reason, the Cross Knights aren't too inclined to attack Dew at one range and get WTA over him.

Begin to Hire Thankfully, Serge had been able to find Vesta at the guild - she hadn't been snagged by another contract in his absence. She appeared almost surprised to see Serge, but his offering of gold conveyed his intentions to her. "I have to say I'm a little surprised to see you again, I didn't think you'd have that kind of money." she replied, looking again at the pouch to confirm it existed. "I guess you're the real deal, I need a few moments to tie up a few loose ends but I'm ready to start work." Vesta looked around the hall lazily, her eyes moving between people in the crowd. "When are we leaving? I was hoping to say goodbye to a few friends of mine." she asked, sitting back in her chair. "Weird, normally you have trouble avoiding Octon. I'm sure he's probably up to mischief somewhere." Serge spends 2000 to hire Vesta! Shop and Chop The streets of Tytila had returned to life, just as full as they had been the day before. Sidney's tour of the city soon led Cass' group to Lady Lidoine's, a subtly refined building right next to Aurus' own. Unlike its gaudy neighbour, the angular structure was a subdued pink. Finely dressed nobles were walking in and out of the store, business appeared to be fluorishing. The entrance hall was inviting, even from outside the displays were visible, mannequins clad in an assortment of fine clothes. An attendant wasn't too far inside the entrance, pointing a trio of women ahead of them within the store. To the side of the building, leaning up against the wall, was Morganna. Deeply engrossed in a book, she hadn't even noticed Cass' group. The chances were that she was barely aware of much going on around her. Dark Connections Alain found Emily sat on the bed, looking down at one of her tomes. "Oh? Sir Alain? Did you come to visit me?" she asked, her focus on her book broken quite easily. There was a child-like aura to her behaviour, perhaps even more so than before her death. "It's really boring in here, but Lars said that I needed to stay here until I got better. He said that I got really hurt in the last battle... but I feel just fine now. It couldn't have been that bad, right? My Uncle always said I needed to listen to people in charge, and he's not normally wrong!"

Don't forget Dimna! Although the Hero Bow could take the same credit, but I guess there's nobody else who really cares much about bows. Leaf might take a Silver and Johalva and Hannibal are likely to rot in the backline. It's not bad, but it's still relatively lame!